The Interdependent Morality Directive: An extension of the animal rights and environmental ethics debate

The Interdependent Morality Directive: An Extension of the Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics Debate offers a foundation that seeks to reconcile the contending arguments from the animal rights and the environmental ethics schools of thought. By constantly emphasizing the interdependency of all members of the biosphere, the Interdependent Morality Directive offers a unique perspective concerning how humans can learn to interact with the Earth\u27s varied and diverse life forms. First, this thesis presents an analysis of two opposing camps: (1) the environmentalist argument as represented by Aldo Leopold\u27s A Sand County Almanac (the land ethic) and Paul Taylor\u27s Respect For Nature and (2) the animal rights argument of Tom Regan in his book The Case for Animal Rights. Next, the point of conflict between these two groups is examined showing how the environmentalist\u27s concern for the land is in direct conflict with the animal rightist\u27s focus on non-human animals. Finally, the Interdependent Morality Directive is presented. David Hume\u27s concept of sympathy is referenced as a principle basis for this argument. The Interdependent Morality Directive seeks to extend both the animal rights and environmental theories, claiming that by adopting an all-members-of-the-biosphere-are-interdependent philosophy, each school of thought can create more efficient policy proposals using Richard Taylor\u27s Interpretive approach to policy analysis

Parental investment and offspring sex ratios in house sparrows, Passer domesticus and cattle egrets, Bubulcus ibis.

Fisher (1930) argued that parents should invest equally in the two sexes. Since then, others have proposed conditions under which parents might be selected to bias their investment in favor of either sons or daughters. I examined brood sex ratios and parental investment patterns in two species of birds: house sparrows, Passer domesticus and cattle egrets, Bubulcus ibis. I found that, at the population level, house sparrows do not vary brood sex ratios over the course of the breeding season but there is heterogeneity among females, indicating that individual females are producing broods with biased sex ratios. It has been suggested that females might bias the sex ratio of offspring in relation to the attractiveness of their mates. Female house sparrows reportedly prefer to mate with males with larger black throat badges and females mated to larger-badged males did produce more sons and females mated to smaller-badged males tended to have more daughters. Larger-badged males also contributed proportionately more to the feeding of nestlings and fledged more of the young that hatched in their nest than smaller-badged males, suggesting that females may gain direct benefits from choosing large-badged males. I also looked for differences in parental investment in sons and daughters during the nestling period by manipulating brood sex ratios. There were no differences in maternal and paternal feeding rates to all-male, all-female, and mixed-sex control nests at any time during the nestling period. Nor were there differences in final weights of nestlings or in nestling growth rates over the course of the experiment. In house sparrows, differential allocation may be expressed in biased brood sex ratios rather than in differential parental investment during the nestling period. Lastly, I looked at sex ratio variation in relation to hatch order in a species with asynchronous hatching, cattle egrets. Cattle egrets exhibit facultative siblicide and I found that females bias the sex ratio of the a-chick (the chick most likely to survive) in favor of sons and that overall sex ratios are male-biased due to this bias and the lack of a corresponding bias towards daughters in the other ranks

Oncological outcome and patient satisfaction with skin-sparing mastectomy and immediate breast reconstruction: a prospective observational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The management of early breast cancer (BC) with skin-sparing mastectomy (SSM) and immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is not based on level-1 evidence. In this study, the oncological outcome, post-operative morbidity and patients' satisfaction with SSM and IBR using the latissimus dorsi (LD) myocutaneous flap and/or breast prosthesis is evaluated.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>137 SSMs with IBR (10 bilateral) were undertaken in 127 consecutive women, using the LD flap plus implant (n = 85), LD flap alone (n = 1) or implant alone (n = 51), for early BC (n = 130) or prophylaxis (n = 7). Nipple reconstruction was performed in 69 patients, using the trefoil local flap technique (n = 61), nipple sharing (n = 6), skin graft (n = 1) and Monocryl mesh (n = 1). Thirty patients underwent contra-lateral procedures to enhance symmetry, including 19 augmentations and 11 mastopexy/reduction mammoplasties. A linear visual analogue scale was used to assess patient satisfaction with surgical outcome, ranging from 0 (not satisfied) to 10 (most satisfied).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After a median follow-up of 36 months (range = 6-101 months) there were no local recurrences. Overall breast cancer specific survival was 99.2%, 8 patients developed distant disease and 1 died of metastatic BC. There were no cases of partial or total LD flap loss. Morbidities included infection, requiring implant removal in 2 patients and 1 patient developed marginal ischaemia of the skin envelope. Chemotherapy was delayed in 1 patient due to infection. Significant capsule formation, requiring capsulotomy, was observed in 85% of patients who had either post-mastectomy radiotherapy (PMR) or prior radiotherapy (RT) compared with 13% for those who had not received RT. The outcome questionnaire was completed by 82 (64.6%) of 127 patients with a median satisfaction score of 9 (range = 5-10).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>SSM with IBR is associated with low morbidity, high levels of patient satisfaction and is oncologically safe for T(is), T1 and T2 tumours without extensive skin involvement.</p

Seasonal variations of the digestive tract of the Eurasian beaver castor fiber.

Forage availability for wild rodents varies with season. In turn, the composition of food can affect morphometric parameters of the digestive tract. This study was performed in Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) whose population was close to extinction in most Eurasian countries, but has now increased. Due to the previous low number of studies, information about the effect of forage availability on the digestive tract morphology has previously been lacking. This study was performed using beavers captured from the natural environment during three seasons of different forage availability: winter, summer and autumn. It was found that the diet of the beaver varied during the year; in winter it was dominated by woody material consisting of willow shoots, whereas in summer the diet was primarily herbs, grass and leaves. Season also affected the mass of digested contents of the digestive tract. The digestive content increased in the caecum and colon in winter and autumn, when poor-quality food dominated the beaver's diet. The results indicated that the digestive tract parameters of beavers varied based on the composition of available forage

Strategies for Mitigating Bird Strike Risk from Vulture Populations at MacDill AFB

Over the last 20 years, strikes with vultures have accounted for 1/3 of the total damage to aircraft at MacDill AFB in Tampa, FL. Locally, vulture populations increase in the fall as flocks migrate south and winter in the Tampa Bay area. Aerial surveys as well as ground surveys were used to identify vulture roost locations and data on daily movement patterns were collected. Black and Turkey vultures were roosting within one-half mile of the runway in adjacent mangroves and on nearby large fuel tanks for two oil distributors for the Port of Tampa. The vultures caused frequent increases in the Bird Watch Conditions when they were leaving the roost for the day. The birds soared over the airfield gaining altitude using the thermals coming off the concrete on the way to food sources. Using tactics involving pyrotechnics, depredation and effigies the roosts were effectively harassed and most of the birds either moved closer to their food source on the east side of the bay or much further west along the peninsula. The roosts closest to the base became mostly dormant. Subsequently when the vultures reached the airfield during their daily movements they would quickly cross the airspace and not soar over the runway area because they had already reached their desired altitude. As a result, vultures stayed over the airfield for much shorter time periods when traveling to their food source. Many vultures diverted around the airfield entirely when several effigies were placed along the west perimeter fence line. This program utilizing harassment as well as restructured flying restrictions and increased pilot awareness decreased the amount of time spent in any BWC above low-alert by over 93%. The result was significantly increased training time with no increase in bird strike rates or any bird strikes involving vultures

Looking at the Dietary Habits, Health, and Distributions of Parrots Through the Lens of Geophagy to Improve Management Outcomes in Conservation Arks and Parks: A Metaphorical Salt Gathering Expedition

A growing number of parrot species require conservation intervention. Whether carried out in “conservation parks” (i.e., in the wild) and/or “conservation arks” (i.e., in captivity), conservation endeavors involve protecting and/or providing whatever resources parrots need to remain healthy and reproduce. Since an animal’s health, welfare, and fitness are strongly influenced by its nutritional status, appropriate foodstuffs are among the most important of said resources. A robust working knowledge of parrots’ dietary habits is therefore vital to the success of parrot conservation efforts. The aim of this dissertation is to fill in a few of the gaps in our understanding of parrots’ dietary habits. Geophagy, the consumption of earthen materials, is often used as a lens through which to explore the dietary habits of parrots and achieve my aim. My goals were to: (1a) assess the current state of knowledge regarding parrots’ dietary habits, (1b) quantify reports of parrots consuming “alternate” foodstuffs (anything other than reproductive plant parts), (2a) explore the utility of vegetation indices and their derivatives in modelling Red-crowned Parrot (Amazona viridigenalis) distributions in a highly-modified landscape (general, nest, roost, etc.), (3a) study relationships between dietary sodium (Na) requirements and aqueous-type geophagy in captive Monk Parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus) throughout their reproductive calendar, and (5) use elemental compositions of eggshells of geophagous Peruvian Scarlet and Red-and-green Macaws’ (Ara macao and A. chloropterus) eggs to examine their health and reduced reproductive success. I found over 43% of parrot species’ dietary habits remain “poorly-resolved”. The consumption of alternate foodstuffs, including earthen materials, is widespread across the order. Red-crowned Parrot distributions could be modelled using vegetation indices and their derivatives. Captive Monk Parakeets remain healthy and reproduce effectively when consuming diets containing no more than 700 ppm [Na]; parrots dietary Na requirements are likely significantly less than 1500 ppm [Na]. Peruvian macaws likely engage in geophagy to satisfy more than one mineral deficiency but may be exposed to toxicant-type elements that negatively impact their health in the process. Further research regarding parrots’ dietary habits is needed to ultimately “stall the silence of the squawk” in both conservation arks and parks around the world

Modelling Red-Crowned Parrot (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) distributions in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas using elevation and vegetation indices and their derivatives.

Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrots (Psittaciformes: Amazona viridigenalis [Cassin, 1853]) primarily occupy vegetated urban rather than natural areas. We investigated the utility of raw vegetation indices and their derivatives as well as elevation in modelling the Red-crowned parrot's general use, nest site, and roost site habitat distributions. A feature selection algorithm was employed to create and select an ensemble of fine-scale, top-ranked MaxEnt models from optimally-sized, decorrelated subsets of four to seven of 199 potential variables. Variables were ranked post hoc by frequency of appearance and mean permutation importance in top-ranked models. Our ensemble models accurately predicted the three distributions of interest ([Formula: see text] Area Under the Curve [AUC] = 0.904-0.969). Top-ranked variables for different habitat distribution models included: (a) general use-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) values, entropy and contrast textures of NDVI, and elevation; (b) nest site-entropy textures of NDVI and Green-Blue NDVI, and percent cover of preferred range of entropy texture of NDVI values; (c) roost site-percent cover of preferred ranges of entropy texture of NDVI values, contrast texture of NDVI, and entropy texture of Green-Red Normalized Difference Index. Texas Rio Grande Valley Red-crowned Parrot presence was associated with urban areas with high heterogeneity and randomness in the distribution of vegetation and/or its characteristics (e.g., arrangement, type, structure). Maintaining existing preferred vegetation types and incorporating them into new developments should support the persistence of Red-crowned Parrots in southern Texas