Symposium on rationality and commitment: introduction

In his critique of rational choice theory, Amartya Sen claims that committed agents do not (or not exclusively) pursue their own goals. This claim appears to be nonsensical since even strongly heteronomous or altruistic agents cannot pursue other people's goals without making them their own. It seems that self-goal choice is constitutive of any kind of agency. In this paper, Sen's radical claim is defended. It is argued that the objection raised against Sen's claim holds only with respect to individual goals. Not all goals, however, are individual goals; there are shared goals, too. Shared goals are irreducible to individual goals, as the argument from we-derivativeness and the argument from normativity show. It is further claimed that an adequate account of committed action defies both internalism and externalism about practical reason

Small-scale experimental habitat fragmentation reduces colonization rates in species-rich grasslands

Habitat fragmentation is one of the most important threats to biodiversity. Decreasing patch size may lead to a reduction in the size of populations and to an increased extinction risk of remnant populations. Furthermore, colonization rates may be reduced in isolated patches. To investigate the effects of isolation and patch size on extinction and colonization rates of plant species, calcareous grasslands at three sites in the Swiss Jura Mountains were experimentally fragmented into patches of 0.25, 2.25, and 20.25m2 by frequent mowing of the surrounding area from 1993 to 1999. Species richness in the fragment plots and adjacent control plots of the same sizes was recorded during these 7years. In agreement with the theory of island biogeography, colonization rate was reduced by 30% in fragments versus non-isolated controls, and extinction increased in small versus large plots. Habitat specialists, in contrast to generalists, were less likely to invade fragments. In the last 4years of the experiment, extinction rates tended to be higher in fragment than in control plots at two of the three sites. Despite reduced colonization rates and a tendency of increased extinction rates in fragments, fragmented plots had only marginally fewer species than control plots after 7years. Hence, rates were a more sensitive measure for community change than changes in species richness per se. From a conservation point of view, the detected reduced colonization rates are particularly problematic in small fragments, which are more likely to suffer from high extinction rates in the long ru

Information needs of early-stage prostate cancer patients : within- and between-group agreement of patients and health professionals

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch)Purpose: The aims of this study were to analyze agreement on information needs within a group of early-state prostate cancer patients and to compare information preferences of patients with the view of health-care professionals about patients’ needs. Methods: Sample consists of patients (n =128) and six subgroups of health-care professionals (urologists, n=32; nurses, n =95; radiotherapy technologists (RTTs), n =36; medical oncologists, n =19; radiation oncologists, n =12; general practitioners (GPs), n =10). Information needs have been assessed with 92 questions concerning prostate cancer and its treatment. Respondents judged the importance of addressing each question. Within- and between-group agreements of patients and health-care professional groups were estimatedwith raw agreement indices as well as chance-corrected Kappa and Gwet’s AC1 measures. Finally, group-specific core items rated with high importance as well as high agreement were defined. Results: Patients rated on average (median) half, i.e., 51 out 92 items as essential (interquartile range (IQR)=36-66), 26 items as desired (IQR=14-38), and 10 items as avoidable (IQR=2-22). Within-group agreement on the presented information topics is modest for any participating group (AC1patients=0.319; AC1professionals=0.295-0.398). Agreement between patients and professionals is low too (AC1=0.282-0.329). Defining group-specific core sets of information topics results in 51 items being part of at least one core set. Concordance of the item core sets of patients and professionals is moderate with κ=0.38-0.66, sensitivity of professionals’ core sets for patients’ preferences varies between 56 and 74%. Conclusions: Results emphasize the need for dialogue between doctor/professional and patient in identifying the information needed by individual patients and support the importance of shared decision making

A new modification of the chiron ACS assay for total prostate-specific antigen achieves equimolar response characteristics and improves the detection of prostate cancer

Nonequimolar-response assays for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) are criticized for overestimating total PSA in some men without prostate cancer (PCA), and underestimating total PSA in some men with PCA. We recently studied three nonequimolar-response PSA assays that had undergone modifications. While two of the studied assays achieved equimolar-response characteristics with improved areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC), the modification of the Chiron ACS PSA assay (ACS PSA2, Chiron) failed to achieve this. Recently, the ACS assay underwent another modification (ACS PSA, Bayer), which we investigated. Sera from 305 men (155 without and 150 with PCA, PSA greater than or equal to2 and less than or equal to30 mug/l, TandemE) were measured using both modifications of the ACS assay and equimolar-response reference methods (TandemR free and Tandem E, Hybritech). Molar response relative to the reference method and clinical performance (comparison of AUCs) between the previous and new ACS assay modifications were studied. The new modification of the ACS assay (ACS PSA, Bayer) achieved equimolar-response characteristics but reported lower values (average 10%) than the Tandem E assay. Compared to the previous modification (ACS PSA2, Chiron), a 3% improvement in AUC (p=0.01) was found. Using results of the redesigned equimolar-response assay (ACS PSA, Bayer), we calculated that 6 of 155 men without PCA in this sample set could be spared unnecessary biopsy compared with the previous nonequimolar-response assay (ACS PSA2, Chiron) without missing additional PCA (90% sensitivity). These data provide additional evidence for clinical advantages of equimolar-response over nonequimolar-response PSA assay formats

Health-related quality of life after radical prostatectomy and low-dose-rate brachytherapy for localized prostate cancer

To evaluate quality of life (QOL) after radical retropubic prostatectomy (RP) and low-dose-rate brachytherapy (BT)

Ecosystem-Atmosphere Exchange of Carbon, Water and Energy over a Mixed Deciduous Forest in the Midwest

During the project period we continued to conduct long-term (multi-year) measurements, analysis, and modeling of energy and mass exchange in and over a deciduous forest in the Midwestern United States, to enhance the understanding of soil-vegetation-atmosphere exchange of carbon. At the time when this report was prepared, results from nine years of measurements (1998 - 2006) of above canopy CO2 and energy fluxes at the AmeriFlux site in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest, Indiana, USA (see Table 1), were available on the Fluxnet database, and the hourly CO2 fluxes for 2007 are presented here (see Figure 1). The annual sequestration of atmospheric carbon by the forest is determined to be between 240 and 420 g C m-2 a-1 for the first ten years. These estimates are based on eddy covariance measurements above the forest, with a gap-filling scheme based on soil temperature and photosynthetically active radiation. Data gaps result from missing data or measurements that were rejected in qua)lity control (e.g., during calm nights). Complementary measurements of ecological variables (i.e. inventory method), provided an alternative method to quantify net carbon uptake by the forest, partition carbon allocation in each ecosystem components, and reduce uncertainty on annual net ecosystem productivity (NEP). Biometric datasets are available on the Fluxnext database since 1998 (with the exclusion of 2006). Analysis for year 2007 is under completion

Potential of MODIS ocean bands for estimating CO2 flux from terrestrial vegetation: A novel approach

A physiologically-driven spectral index using two ocean-color bands of MODIS satellite sensor showed great potential to track seasonally changing photosynthetic light use efficiency (LUE) and stress-induced reduction in net primary productivity (NPP) of terrestrial vegetation. Based on these findings, we developed a simple ‘‘continuous field’’ model solely based on remotely sensed spectral data that could explain 88% of variability in flux-tower based daily NPP. For the first time, such a procedure is successfully tested at landscape level using satellite imagery. These findings highlight the unexplored potential of narrow-band satellite sensors to improve estimates of spatial and temporal distribution in terrestrial carbon flux

Prosomes exist in plant cells too

A 19S particle was purified from tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) leaf cells. Its density was determined as 1296 g/cm3 in Cs2SO4-DMSO gradients, indicating the presence of RNA and protein. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) revealed eight distinct proteins in the range of 20-30 kD and RNA in the range of 70-80 nucleotides. Electron microscopic examination showed the same raspberry-shaped structure with a central depression as described for prosomes. We conclude that tobacco 19S particles represent small cytoplasmic complexes, possessing biochemical and structural characteristics similar to the hitherto known prosomes of animal cells