Kava - the unfolding story: Report on a work-in-progress.

Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 8(3), 237-263

The summertime plankton community at South Georgia (Southern Ocean): comparing the historical (1926/27) and modern (post 1995) records.

The earliest comprehensive plankton sampling programme in the Southern Ocean was 32 undertaken during the early part of last century by Discovery Investigations to gain a 33 greater scientific understanding of whale stocks and their summer feeding grounds. An 34 initial survey was carried out around South Georgia during December 1926 and January 35 1927 to describe the distribution of plankton during the summer, and to serve as a 36 baseline against which to compare future surveys. We have reanalysed phytoplankton and 37 zooplankton data from this survey and elucidated patterns of community distribution and 38 compared them with our recent understanding of the ecosystem based on contemporary 39 data. Analysis of Discovery data identified five groups of stations with characteristic 40 phytoplankton communities which were almost entirely consistent with the original 41 analysis conducted by Hardy and Gunther (1935). Major groupings were located at the 42 western end of the island and over the northern shelf where Corethron spp. were 43 dominant, and to the south and east where a more diverse flora included high abundances 44 of Nitzschia seriata. Major zooplankton-station groupings were located over the inner 45 shelf which was characterised by a high abundance of Drepanopus forcipatus and in 46 oceanic water >500 m deep that were dominated by Foraminifera, Oithona spp., 47 Ctenocalanus vanus, and Calanoides acutus. Stations along the middle and outer shelf 48 regions to the north and west, were characterised by low overall abundance. There was 49 some evidence that groupings of stations to the north of the island originated in different 50 water masses on either side of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front, the 51 major frontal system in the deep ocean close to South Georgia. However, transect lines 52 during 1926/27 did not extend far enough offshore to sample this frontal region 53 3 adequately. Interannual variability of zooplankton abundance was assessed from stations 54 which were sampled repeatedly during 7 recent British Antarctic Survey cruises (1995-55 2005) to the region and following taxonomic harmonization and numerical 56 standardization (ind. m-3), a subset of 45 taxonomic categories of zooplankton (species 57 and higher taxa) from 1926/27, were compared with similar data obtained during the 58 BAS cruises using a linear model. Initially comparisons were restricted to BAS stations 59 that lay within 40 km of Discovery stations although a comparison was also made using 60 all available data. Despite low abundance values in 1926/27, in neither comparison did 61 Discovery data differ significantly from BAS data. Calculation of the percentage 62 similarity index across cruises did not reveal any systematic differences in species 63 composition between 1926/27 and the present. In the light of ocean warming trends, the 64 existence of more subtle changes in species composition is not ruled out, but an absence 65 of finely resolved time-series data make this impossible to determine

Preliminary Survey of the Terrestrial Isopods (Isopoda), Millipedes (Diplopoda), Harvestmen (Opiliones), and Spiders (Araneae) of Toft Point Natural Area, Door County, Wisconsin

Toft Point Natural Area is a National Natural Landmark owned and managed by the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and located on the Lake Michigan shore of Wisconsin’s Door Peninsula. With twelve biotic communities on 700 acres, Toft Point contains considerable biological diversity. We conducted a preliminary survey of the arachnids (spiders and harvestmen, excluding mites and pseudoscorpions), millipedes (diplopods), and terrestrial isopods (Isopoda: Oniscoidea). Sampling occurred on three dates in 2001 using leaf litter collection with Berlese extraction and a timed collection by hand that incorporated a variety of techniques. Specimens from a 1992 survey and assorted collecting events were also used to compile a species list. The list includes five isopods, four millipedes, six harvestmen, and 113 spiders, including 16 new state records (two millipedes and 14 spiders) and 90 new Door County records. Litter collection and sampling in wetland habitats were both especially productive

Zircon U-Pb dating of Mesozoic volcanic and tectonic events in northwest Palmer Land and southwest Graham Land, Antarctica

New whole rock Rb-Sr and zircon U-Pb geochronological data and Sm-Nd isotopic data are presented from the central magmatic arc domain of the Antarctic Peninsula in the area of northwest Palmer Land and southwest Graham Land, Rb-Sr isochrons indicate an age of 169±6 Ma for basement orthogneisses and 132±9 to 71±9 Ma for plutons. A U-Pb age of 183 ± 2.1 Ma, with no detectable inheritance, on zircons from an orthogneiss from Cape Berteaux provides the first reliable age for the orthogneisses, which are interpreted as metamorphosed silicic volcanic rocks, and Sm-Nd data indicate derivation in a mature volcanic arc. The age indicates they may be correlatives of the Jurassic ‘Chon Aike’ volcanism of the eastern Antarctic Peninsula. A U-Pb zircon age of 107 ± 1.7 Ma on a terrestrial volcanic sequence overlying an uncomformity strongly suggests a mid-Cretaceous age for the extensive volcanic cover of northwest Palmer Land that was previously thought to be Jurassic. The unconformity is interpreted to have been a result of compressional uplift related to the Palmer Land event. This is the first date for the event in the western part of the central magmatic arc terrane of the Antarctic Peninsula

What Motivates Barrier-Crossing Leadership?

From large-scale wars, natural disasters, and pandemics to community-level religious and ethnic conflicts, many leaders wield power during crises by championing their group’s goals against those of rivals. But there is also a rarer breed of leader—barrier-crossers who pursue group interests by recognizing rivals’ interests and working with them to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Though such leaders have played vital roles in resolving conflicts, little is known about their extraordinary motivation. Here we report survey results contrasting barrier-crossing with barrier-bound leaders from seven communities. In line with new theories from group psychology and anthropology, we found that barrier-crossers uniquely reported intense, family-like bonds to both ingroups and outgroups. Further evidence suggests that these outgroup bonds result from past, personally transformative experiences shared with outgroup members

Consistent and fast inference in compartmental models of epidemics using Poisson Approximate Likelihoods

Addressing the challenge of scaling-up epidemiological inference to complex and heterogeneous models, we introduce Poisson Approximate Likelihood (PAL) methods. In contrast to the popular ODE approach to compartmental modelling, in which a large population limit is used to motivate a deterministic model, PALs are derived from approximate filtering equations for finite-population, stochastic compartmental models, and the large population limit drives consistency of maximum PAL estimators. Our theoretical results appear to be the first likelihood-based parameter estimation consistency results which apply to a broad class of partially observed stochastic compartmental models and address the large population limit. PALs are simple to implement, involving only elementary arithmetic operations and no tuning parameters, and fast to evaluate, requiring no simulation from the model and having computational cost independent of population size. Through examples we demonstrate how PALs can be used to: fit an age-structured model of influenza, taking advantage of automatic differentiation in Stan; compare over-dispersion mechanisms in a model of rotavirus by embedding PALs within sequential Monte Carlo; and evaluate the role of unit-specific parameters in a meta-population model of measles