Are intuitions about moral relevance susceptible to framing effects?

Various studies have reported that moral intuitions about the permissibility of acts are subject to framing effects. This paper reports the results of a series of experiments which further examine the susceptibility of moral intuitions to framing effects. The main aim was to test recent speculation that intuitions about the moral relevance of certain properties of cases might be relatively resistent to framing effects. If correct, this would provide a certain type of moral intuitionist with the resources to resist challenges to the reliability of moral intuitions based on such framing effects. And, fortunately for such intuitionists, although the results can’t be used to mount a strident defence of intuitionism, the results do serve to shift the burden of proof onto those who would claim that intuitions about moral relevance are problematically sensitive to framing effects

Is thirty-seven years sufficient for full return of the ant biota following restoration?

Introduction: An assessment of whether rehabilitated mine sites have resulted in natural or novel ecosystems requires monitoring over considerable periods of time or the use of space-for-time substitution (chronosequence) approaches. Methods: To provide an assessment of ecosystem recovery in areas mined for bauxite in 1975, the ant fauna of one area planted with Eucalyptus resinifera, one seeded with mixed native species, one topsoiled but unrestored, and a forest reference was subjected to a ‘long-term’ study by sampling monthly and latterly annually between 1976 and 1989 using pitfall traps. These plots were resampled in 2012. A companion ‘short-term’ chronosequence study was performed in 1979 in 28 bauxite mines of various ages and restored by a range of different methods, plus three forest references. In order to examine the assertion that the observed differences between restored areas and forest references will lessen with time, sampling using comparable methods was repeated in 2012 in seven of the original plots, representing progressive advances in rehabilitation technology: planted pines; planted eastern states eucalypts; planted native eucalypts; planted eucalypts over seeded understorey; and planted eucalypts on fresh, double-stripped topsoil, plus two forest reference sites. Results: Ant and other invertebrate richness in the long-term study was initially superior in the seeded plot, with little difference between the planted and unplanted plots. It was concluded that although composition of the ant fauna had converged on that of the forest over the 14-year period, differences still persisted.The 2012 resampling revealed that ant species richness and composition had deteriorated in the seeded plot, while values in the unplanted plot, which now supported naturally colonised trees and an understorey, had increased. Differences between all rehabilitated plots and forest still persisted. As with the long-term study, the rate of fauna return and the type of ants present in the short-term study plots differed with the method of rehabilitation used, and, in 1979, no plots had converged on the forest in terms of the ant assemblage. By 2012 ant richness increased, and more so with each advance in rehabilitation technology, except for seeding, in which the understorey had collapsed. Double-stripping of topsoil resulted in the greatest improvements in ant species richness, although none of the areas had converged on the forest reference areas in terms of assemblage composition or ant functional group profiles. Furthermore, assemblage composition in the forest had changed over time, possibly due to reductions in rainfall, which further complicates rehabilitation objectives. Conclusions: It is concluded that although rehabilitation can achieve its objective of restoring diversity, the original assemblage has still not been achieved after 37 years, suggesting that a degree of novelty has been introduced into these older-style rehabilitated areas. The company’s current rehabilitation practices reflect multiple advances in their approach, lending optimism that current restoration may achieve something close to the original ecosystem, an outcome that can only be verified by extended studies like the one described here

Identifying novel genetic determinants of hemostatic balance

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73734/1/j.1538-7836.2005.01461.x.pd

Autopsy as an outcome and performance measure: three years of hospital autopsy as an instrument of clinical audit

An extensive literature documents a high prevalence of errors in clinical diagnosis discovered at autopsy. Multiple studies have suggested no significant decrease in these errors over time. Despite these findings, autopsies have dramatically decreased in frequency in the United States and many other countries. In 1994, the last year for which national U.S. data exist, the autopsy rate for all non-forensic deaths fell below 6%. The marked decline in autopsy rates from previous rates of 40\u201350% undoubtedly reflects various factors, including reimbursement issues, the attitudes of clinicians regarding the utility of autopsies in the setting of other diagnostic advances, and general unfamiliarity with the autopsy and techniques for requesting it, especially among physicians-in-training. The autopsy is valuable for its role in undergraduate and graduate medical education, the identification and characterization of new diseases, and contributions to the understanding of disease pathogenesis. Although extensive, these benefits are difficult to quantify. This review of the last three years of hospital autopsy in Lucca studied the more easily quantifiable benefits of the autopsy as a tool in performance measurement and improvement. Such benefits largely relate to the role of the autopsy in detecting errors in clinical diagnosis and unsuspected complications of treatment. It is hoped that characterizing the extent to which the autopsy provides data relevant to clinical performance measurement and improvement will help inform strategies for preserving the benefits of routinely obtained autopsies and for considering its wider use as an instrument for quality improvement

Heat Acclimation with Controlled Heart Rate

Purpose To characterize the adaptive responses to heat acclimation (HA) with controlled heart rate (HR) and determine whether hydration strategy alters adaptations. The influence of HA on V[Combining Dot Above]O2max in cool conditions and self-paced exercise in the heat was also determined. Methods Eight males (V[Combining Dot Above]O2max: 55±7 ml.kg-1.min-1) completed two 10-day interventions in a counterbalanced cross-over design. Fluid intakes differed between interventions to either maintain euhydration (HA-EUH) or elicit similar daily body mass deficits (2.85±0.26%; HA-DEH). HA consisted of 90 min of cycling in 40°C and 40% RH. Initial workload (172±22 W) was adjusted over the last 75 min to maintain exercising HR equivalent to 65% V[Combining Dot Above]O2max. A V[Combining Dot Above]O2max test in cool conditions and 30 min time-trial in hot-humid conditions were completed before and after HA. Results HR at the end of the initial 15 min workload was 10±5 beats.min-1 lower on day 10 in both interventions (P<0.001). The workload necessary to maintain exercising HR (145±7 beats.min-1) increased throughout HA-EUH (25±10 W, P=0.001) and HA-DEH (16±18 W, P=0.02). There was a main effect of HA on sweat rate (P=0.014), which tended to increase with HA-EUH (0.19±0.18 L.h-1, P=0.06) but not HA-DEH (P=0.12). Skin temperature decreased during HA-EUH (0.6 ± 0.5°C, P=0.03), but not HA-DEH (P=0.30). There was a main effect of HA on V[Combining Dot Above]O2max (~3 ml.kg-1.min-1, P=0.02); however, neither intervention independently increased V[Combining Dot Above]O2max (both P=0.08). Time-trial performance increased following HA-EUH (19±16 W, P=0.02), but not HA-DEH (P=0.21). Conclusions Controlled HR exercise in the heat induces several HA adaptations, which may be optimized by maintaining euhydration. HA-EUH also improves self-paced exercise performance in the heat. However, HA does not appear to significantly increase V[Combining Dot Above]O2max in cool conditions.This study was funded by Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar

Spontaneous charged lipid transfer between lipid vesicles

An assay to study the spontaneous charged lipid transfer between lipid vesicles is described. A donor/acceptor vesicle system is employed, where neutrally charged acceptor vesicles are fluorescently labelled with the electrostatic membrane probe Fluoresceinphosphatidylethanolamine (FPE). Upon addition of charged donor vesicles, transfer of negatively charged lipid occurs, resulting in a fluorescently detectable change in the membrane potential of the acceptor vesicles. Using this approach we have studied the transfer properties of a range of lipids, varying both the headgroup and the chain length. At the low vesicle concentrations chosen, the transfer follows a first-order process where lipid monomers are transferred presumably through the aqueous solution phase from donor to acceptor vesicle. The rate of transfer decreases with increasing chain length which is consistent with energy models previously reported for lipid monomer vesicle interactions. Our assay improves on existing methods allowing the study of a range of unmodified lipids, continuous monitoring of transfer and simplified experimental procedures

Exercise Heat Acclimation With Dehydration Does Not Affect Vascular and Cardiac Volumes or Systemic Hemodynamics During Endurance Exercise

Copyright © 2021 Travers, González-Alonso, Riding, Nichols, Shaw and Périard. Permissive dehydration during exercise heat acclimation (HA) may enhance hematological and cardiovascular adaptations and thus acute responses to prolonged exercise. However, the independent role of permissive dehydration on vascular and cardiac volumes, ventricular-arterial (VA) coupling and systemic hemodynamics has not been systematically investigated. Seven males completed two 10-day exercise HA interventions with controlled heart rate (HR) where euhydration was maintained or permissive dehydration (-2.9 ± 0.5% body mass) occurred. Two experimental trials were conducted before and after each HA intervention where euhydration was maintained (-0.5 ± 0.4%) or dehydration was induced (-3.6 ± 0.6%) via prescribed fluid intakes. Rectal (Tre) and skin temperatures, HR, blood (BV) and left ventricular (LV) volumes, and systemic hemodynamics were measured at rest and during bouts of semi-recumbent cycling (55% V̇O2peak) in 33°C at 20, 100, and 180 min. Throughout HA sweat rate (12 ± 9%) and power output (18 ± 7 W) increased (P 0.05). Furthermore, the thermal and cardiovascular strain during exercise with acute dehydration post-HA was not influenced by HA hydration strategy. Instead, elevations in Tre and HR and reductions in BV and cardiac output matched pre-HA levels (P > 0.05). These findings indicate that permissive dehydration during exercise HA with controlled HR and maintained thermal stimulus does not affect hematological or cardiovascular responses during acute endurance exercise under moderate heat stress with maintained euhydration or moderate dehydration.Aspetar Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar

Incorporating ‘recruitment’ in matrix projection models : estimation, parameters, and the influence of model structure

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Ornithology 152, Suppl.2 (2012):585-595, doi:10.1007/s10336-010-0573-1.Advances in the estimation of population parameters using encounter data from marked individuals have made it possible to include estimates of the probability of recruitment in population projection models. However, the projected growth rate of the population, and the sensitivity of projected growth to changes in recruitment, can vary significantly depending upon both the structural form of the model and how recruitment is parameterized. We show that the common practices of (1) collapsing some age classes into a single, terminal ‘aggregated’ age-class, and (2) parameterizing recruitment using the proportion of recruited individuals (breeders) in a given age-class may confound analysis of age-based (Leslie) matrix projection models in some instances, relative to state-based projection models where recruited and pre-recruited individuals are treated as separate states. Failing to account for these differences can lead to misinterpretation of the relative role of recruitment in the dynamics of an age-structured population.We show that such problems can be avoided, either by structural changes to the terminal aggregated age-class in age-based models, or by using using a state-based model instead. Since all the metrics of general interest from a classical age-based matrix models are readily derived from a state-based model equivalent, this suggests there may be little reason to use the classical age-based approach in situations where recruitment is a parameter of interest

WiseEye: next generation expandable and programmable camera trap platform for wildlife research

Funding: The work was supported by the RCUK Digital Economy programme to the dot.rural Digital Economy Hub; award reference: EP/G066051/1. The work of S. Newey and RJI was part funded by the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services (RESAS). Details published as an Open Source Toolkit, PLOS Journals at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0169758Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Cerebellar Integrity in the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - Frontotemporal Dementia Continuum

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) are multisystem neurodegenerative disorders that manifest overlapping cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor features. The cerebellum has long been known to be crucial for intact motor function although emerging evidence over the past decade has attributed cognitive and neuropsychiatric processes to this structure. The current study set out i) to establish the integrity of cerebellar subregions in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia spectrum (ALS-bvFTD) and ii) determine whether specific cerebellar atrophy regions are associated with cognitive, neuropsychiatric and motor symptoms in the patients. Seventy-eight patients diagnosed with ALS, ALS-bvFTD, behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), most without C9ORF72 gene abnormalities, and healthy controls were investigated. Participants underwent cognitive, neuropsychiatric and functional evaluation as well as structural imaging using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to examine the grey matter subregions of the cerebellar lobules, vermis and crus. VBM analyses revealed: i) significant grey matter atrophy in the cerebellum across the whole ALS-bvFTD continuum; ii) atrophy predominantly of the superior cerebellum and crus in bvFTD patients, atrophy of the inferior cerebellum and vermis in ALS patients, while ALS-bvFTD patients had both patterns of atrophy. Post-hoc covariance analyses revealed that cognitive and neuropsychiatric symptoms were particularly associated with atrophy of the crus and superior lobule, while motor symptoms were more associated with atrophy of the inferior lobules. Taken together, these findings indicate an important role of the cerebellum in the ALS-bvFTD disease spectrum, with all three clinical phenotypes demonstrating specific patterns of subregional atrophy that associated with different symptomology