Legitimating space: art and the politics of place

Rock art, graffiti, and other emplaced works of art bring people together at specific places. This type of art allows for encounters between people in their absence, and thus presents a range of possibilities for making statements about specific places and those who occupy or visit. This opens the possibility for issues of legitimation to become implicitly or explicitly articulated. However, the legitimate use of space, and the legitimate employment of art, can vary drastically across different contexts. Here, the paper discusses a range of different strategies of art and legitimation in three case studies from India, California, and Spai

Functional Plasticity in Lamellar Autotomy by Larval Damselflies in Response to Predatory Larval Dragonfly Cues

Adaptive autotomy is the self-amputation of an appendage in response to external stimuli that benefits survival. Variation in the ease of appendage removal among populations suggests that autotomy performance is under selection, evolves, or is phenotypically plastic, although the latter has never been experimentally tested. We model an autotomy threshold that optimally balances how the benefits of surviving predator attack versus the costs of losing an appendage vary with predator presence. We test for functional plasticity in autotomy threshold in the caudal lamellae of Enallagma damselfly larvae by experimentally manipulating non-lethal cues from predatory dragonfly larvae. Predator cues lead to functional plastic responses in the form of smaller lamellar joints that required lower peak breaking force. This is the first experimental demonstration of functional plasticity in autotomy to cues from a grasping predator, a novel form of indirect predator effects on prey, realized through plasticity in morphological traits that govern the autotomy threshold. This supports the model of optimized autotomy performance and provides a novel explanation for variation in performance among populations under different predator conditions. Plastic autotomy responses that mitigate costs in the face of variation in mortality risks might be a form of inducible defense

Teaching Bird Identification & Vocabulary with Twitter

Species identification is essential to biology, conservation, and management. The ability to focus on specific diagnostic characteristics of a species helps improve the speed and accuracy of identification. Birds are excellent subjects for teaching species identification because, in combination with their different shapes and sizes, their plumages have distinctive colors and patterns that vary characteristically from species to species. Bird feather tracts have specific names so that proper descriptions of colors and patterns on those tracts can improve the precision and conciseness of identification criteria. We use popular social media (Twitter) to engage students in an exercise designed to familiarize them with avian species identification and improve their use and comprehension of vocabulary. This exercise can be used in higher education for ornithology and other identification courses, as well as in primary education as a basic introduction to species and biodiversity.This is the publisher’s final pdf. The article is copyrighted by National Association of Biology Teachers and published by University of California Press. It can be found at: http://abt.ucpress.edu/Keywords: social media, social networking, Twitter, ornithology, engagement, networking site

Comprehensive systematic review summary: Treatment of tics in people with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders

Objective To systematically evaluate the efficacy of treatments for tics and the risks associated with their use. Methods This project followed the methodologies outlined in the 2011 edition of the American Academy of Neurology\u27s guideline development process manual. We included systematic reviews and randomized controlled trials on the treatment of tics that included at least 20 participants (10 participants if a crossover trial), except for neurostimulation trials, for which no minimum sample size was required. To obtain additional information on drug safety, we included cohort studies or case series that specifically evaluated adverse drug effects in individuals with tics. Results There was high confidence that the Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics was more likely than psychoeducation and supportive therapy to reduce tics. There was moderate confidence that haloperidol, risperidone, aripiprazole, tiapride, clonidine, onabotulinumtoxinA injections, 5-ling granule, Ningdong granule, and deep brain stimulation of the globus pallidus were probably more likely than placebo to reduce tics. There was low confidence that pimozide, ziprasidone, metoclopramide, guanfacine, topiramate, and tetrahydrocannabinol were possibly more likely than placebo to reduce tics. Evidence of harm associated with various treatments was also demonstrated, including weight gain, drug-induced movement disorders, elevated prolactin levels, sedation, and effects on heart rate, blood pressure, and ECGs. Conclusions There is evidence to support the efficacy of various medical, behavioral, and neurostimulation interventions for the treatment of tics. Both the efficacy and harms associated with interventions must be considered in making treatment recommendations

Practice Guideline Recommendations Summary: Treatment of Tics in People with Tourette Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorders

Objective To make recommendations on the assessment and management of tics in people with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders. Methods A multidisciplinary panel consisting of 9 physicians, 2 psychologists, and 2 patient representatives developed practice recommendations, integrating findings from a systematic review and following an Institute of Medicine–compliant process to ensure transparency and patient engagement. Recommendations were supported by structured rationales, integrating evidence from the systematic review, related evidence, principles of care, and inferences from evidence. Results Forty-six recommendations were made regarding the assessment and management of tics in individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders. These include counseling recommendations on the natural history of tic disorders, psychoeducation for teachers and peers, assessment for comorbid disorders, and periodic reassessment of the need for ongoing therapy. Treatment options should be individualized, and the choice should be the result of a collaborative decision among patient, caregiver, and clinician, during which the benefits and harms of individual treatments as well as the presence of comorbid disorders are considered. Treatment options include watchful waiting, the Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics, and medication; recommendations are provided on how to offer and monitor these therapies. Recommendations on the assessment for and use of deep brain stimulation in adults with severe, treatment-refractory tics are provided as well as suggestions for future research

The Direct Medical Costs of Undiagnosed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

AbstractObjectiveTo estimate the costs of undiagnosed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by describing inpatient, outpatient, and pharmacy utilization in the years before and after the diagnosis.MethodsA total of 6864 patients who were enrolled in the Lovelace Health Plan for at least 12 months during the study period (January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2004) were identified. The first date that utilization was attributed to COPD was considered the first date of diagnosis. Each COPD case was matched to up to three age- and sex-matched controls. All utilization and direct medical costs during the study period were compiled monthly and compared based on the time before and after the initial diagnosis.ResultsTotal costs were higher by an average of $1182 per patient in the 2 years before the initial COPD diagnosis, and$2489 in the 12 months just before the initial diagnosis, compared to matched controls. Most of the higher cost for undiagnosed COPD was attributable to hospitalizations. Inpatient costs did not increase after the diagnosis was made, but approximately one-third of admissions after the diagnosis were attributed to respiratory disease. Outpatient and pharmacy costs did not differ substantially between cases and matched controls until just a few months before the initial diagnosis, but remained 50% to 100% higher than for controls in the 2 years after diagnosis.ConclusionsUndiagnosed COPD has a substantial impact on health-care costs and utilization in this integrated managed care system, particularly for hospitalizations

The legacy of redlining in the effect of foreclosures on Detroit residents’ self-rated health

Historical practices, such as housing discrimination in Detroit, have been shown to have lasting impacts on communities. Perhaps the most explicit example is the practice of redlining in the 1930s, whereby lenders outlined financially undesirable neighborhoods, populated by minority families, on maps and prevented residents from moving to better resourced neighborhoods. Awareness of historical housing discrimination may improve research assessing the impacts of current neighborhood characteristics on health. Using the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study (DNHS), we assessed the association between two-year changes in home foreclosure rates following the 2007–2008 Great Recession, and residents’ five-year self-rated health trajectories (2008–2013); and estimated the confounding bias introduced by ignoring historical redlining practices in the city. We used both ecological and multilevel models to make inference about person- and community-level processes. In a neighborhood-level linear regression adjusted for confounders (including percent redlined); a 10%-point slower foreclosure rate recovery was associated with an increase in prevalence of poor self-rated health of 0.31 (95% CI:−0.02 to 0.64). At the individual level, it was associated with a within-person increase in probability of poor health of 0.45 (95% CI:0.15–0.72). Removing redlining from the model biased the estimated effect upward to 0.38 (95% CI:0.07–0.69) and 0.56 (95% CI:0.21–0.84) in the neighborhood and individual-level models, respectively. Stratum-specific foreclosure recovery effects indicate stronger influence in neighborhoods with a greater proportion of residents identifying as white and a greater degree of historic redlining. These findings support earlier theory suggesting a historical influence of structural discrimination on the association between current neighborhood characteristics and health, and suggests that historical redlining specifically may increase vulnerability to contemporary neighborhood foreclosures. Community interventions should consider historical discrimination in conjunction with current place-based indicators to more equitably improve population health

Conservation de la biodiversité dans les paysages forestiers aménagés : utilisation des seuils critiques d’habitat. [Conserving biodiversity in managed forest landscapes: The use of critical thresholds for habitat]

RÉSUMÉ Au Canada, comme dans les autres grandes régions forestières mondiales, les gestionnaires et le public interrogent lesscientifiques sur les effets à long terme du régime d’aménagement au regard du maintien de la biodiversité. Des étudesrécentes ont montré que les risques d’extinction locale d’espèces peuvent s’accroître fortement lorsque la proportiond’habitat franchit un certain seuil, nommé « seuil critique d’habitat ». La notion de seuil critique d’habitat peut s’appliquersoit à une population d’une espèce donnée, soit à une communauté formée de plusieurs espèces. Dans le cas d’une population,ce seuil est défini comme la proportion minimale d’habitat qu’il faut conserver dans un paysage pour maintenirune population viable. Dans le cas des communautés, le seuil critique d’habitat correspond à la proportion minimaled’habitat en deçà de laquelle on assiste à une diminution importante du nombre d’espèces au sein de la communauté d’origine.La plupart des experts sont d’avis que les espèces spécialistes et sensibles sont les premières à disparaître. Bien quedes efforts doivent encore être consentis pour l’identification des seuils au sein des différents écosystèmes forestiers,les résultats de plusieurs études convergent et permettent de conclure à la pertinence de leur utilisation dans un cadre deplanification forestière et de maintien de la biodiversité. Les études montrent que le seuil critique d’habitat pour desespèces à grand domaine vital (tels que les oiseaux) peut se situer entre 30 % à 40 % de la proportion de l’habitat considéré(ex : vieilles forêts) observé sous un régime de perturbations naturelles. Nous suggérons, afin de protéger les espècessensibles et d’embrasser l’incertitude associée aux seuils, de maintenir au moins 40 % des habitats résiduels. D’après leprincipe de précaution, nous suggérons de considérer ces seuils comme étant le minimum acceptable en deçà duquelil deviendrait difficile d’assurer la conservation de la biodiversité. Toutefois, pour être efficace, leur utilisation doit êtrecombinée à de bonnes connaissances du fonctionnement des écosystèmes naturels. ABSTRACT In Canada, as in other large forested countries of the world, managers and scientists alike question what can happen toforest biodiversity under long-term industrial forest management. Recent studies may help us understand how speciesreact when habitat is lost past a certain threshold in the landscape. In the case of population, a “critical threshold for habitat”does exist in forested habitat, which is defined by the minimal proportion of habitat needed to be preserved to avoiddrastic population declines or massive species loss. In this paper, two types of thresholds are described, the first refers topopulation, and the second refers to the community of species. Many ecologists agree with the assumption that the specialist,sensitive species are the first to disappear (local extirpation for specialist species). For most species with large homerange (such as birds), the threshold may generally be located between 30% and 40% of the habitat still remaining, comparedto the proportion observed under a natural disturbance regime. We suggest, in order to protect the most sensitivespecies and to deal with uncertainty associated with thresholds, to maintain at least 40% of residual habitats. Althoughthere is still much to understand concerning these thresholds, we nevertheless recommend their use for the diagnosticanalysis that must be performed in the context of forest management planning and biodiversity conservation, as thesethresholds could represent the minimal proportion of habitat to preserve integrity of the forest ecosystem. However, to beeffective, the application of thresholds should be based on detailed knowledge of ecosystem characteristics and dynamics