236 research outputs found
Alternative reproductive tactics of bluegill sunfish.
No full textThis figure has been modified from Gross and Charnov [35] and Neff and Knapp [36]. Ages are based on data from Gross and Charnov [35] but may differ among populations [33].</p
The use of mediation to resolve environmental disputes in South Africa and Switzerland
No full textThe minor dissertation is structured as follows: After a short overview about mediation as one mechanism to resolve environmental disputes and the advantages respectively disadvantages of this kind of alternative dispute resolution, the focus shifts in paragraph C to the use of mediation to resolve environmental disputes in Switzerland. On the basis 4 of several cases in which mediation or mediation-type activities were used to resolve the environmental conflict I want to show why, in the end, environmental mediation probably will never be so widespread in Switzerland as it is in other countries. The paragraph ends with a case study about mediation experiences in Switzerland over nuclear waste disposal. Nevertheless, this aforementioned case study shows that the Swiss decision-making system offers a good basis for mediation procedures in areas of politics where there is yet little participation as longs as certain preconditions for a successful procedure are fulfilled. In paragraph D I deal with the use of mediation in South Africa to resolve environmental disputes. The focus shifts in a first step on the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), especially Chapter 4 NEMA which deals with Alternative Dispute Resolution and, in particular, with environmental mediation. In a next step I examine if this Chapter has been already implemented or if there is still a big gap between theory and practice. Finally, paragraph D ends with two South African cases in which mediation was involved to resolve the dispute and a comparison of the two procedures
Exploring compassion: a meta-analysis of the association between self-compassion and psychopathology
No full textCompassion has emerged as an important construct in studies of mental health and psychological therapy. Although an increasing number of studies have explored relationships between compassion and different facets of psychopathology there has as yet been no systematic review or synthesis of the empirical literature. We conducted a systematic search of the literature on compassion and mental health. We identified 20 samples from 14 eligible studies. All studies used the Neff Self Compassion Scale (Neff 2003, a). We employed meta-analysis to explore associations between self-compassion and psychopathology using random effects analyses of Fisher's Z correcting for attenuation arising from scale reliability. We found a large effect size for the relationship between compassion and psychopathology of r= -0.54 (95%CI = -0.57 to -0.51; Z=-34.02; p<.0001). Heterogeneity was significant in the analysis. There was no evidence of significant publication bias. Compassion is an important explanatory variable in understanding mental health and resilience. Future work is needed to develop the evidence base for compassion in psychopathology, and explore correlates of compassion and psychopathology
On the dynamics of nitrite, nitrate and other biomarkers of nitric oxide production in inflammatory bowel disease
No full textNitrite and nitrate are frequently used surrogate markers of nitric oxide (NO) production. Using rat models of acute and chronic DSS-induced colitis we examined the applicability of these and other NO-related metabolites, in tissues and blood, for the characterization of inflammatory bowel disease. Global NO dynamics were assessed by simultaneous quantification of nitrite, nitrate, nitroso and nitrosyl species over time in multiple compartments. NO metabolite levels were compared to a composite disease activity index (DAI) and contrasted with measurements of platelet aggregability, ascorbate redox status and the effects of 5-aminosalicylic acid (5-ASA). Nitroso products in the colon and in other organs responded in a manner consistent with the DAI. In contrast, nitrite and nitrate, in both intra- and extravascular compartments, exhibited variations that were not always in step with the DAI. Extravascular nitrite, in particular, demonstrated significant temporal instabilities, ranging from systemic drops to marked increases. The latter was particularly evident after cessation of the inflammatory stimulus and accompanied by profound ascorbate oxidation. Treatment with 5-ASA effectively reversed these fluctuations and the associated oxidative and nitrosative stress. Platelet activation was enhanced in both the acute and chronic model. Our results offer a first glimpse into the systemic nature of DSS-induced inflammation and reveal a greater complexity of NO metabolism than previously envisioned, with a clear dissociation of nitrite from other markers of NO production. The remarkable effectiveness of 5-ASA to abrogate the observed pattern of nitrite instability suggests a hitherto unrecognized role of this molecule in either development or resolution of inflammation. Its possible link to tissue oxygen consumption and the hypoxia that tends to accompany the inflammatory process warrants further investigation
Conservation and enhancement of wild fish populations: preserving genetic quality versus genetic diversity<sup>1</sup>This paper is derived from the J.C. Stevenson Memorial Lecture delivered by Bryan Neff at the Canadian Conference for Fisheries Research in Winnipeg, Manitoba, January 2010.
No full textNearly 40% of commercial fisheries have now collapsed or are in serious decline. In response, governments have invested millions of dollars into artificial breeding programs, but many programs have failed to rehabilitate dwindling wild stocks. This failure may in part lie in the lack of knowledge about the genetic architecture of fitness: the genes and genotypes that are associated with individual performance. In this paper we discuss (i) artificial breeding programs, (ii) the genetic architecture of fitness, (iii) additive and nonadditive genetic effects on fitness, (iv) genetic diversity and evolvability, and (v) natural breeding and adaptation. We argue that most breeding programs do not maintain genetic adaptations and may consequently be ineffective at rehabilitating or enhancing wild populations. Moreover, there is no evidence that preserving genetic diversity as measured from neutral genetic markers increases fish performance or population viability outside of populations that experience strong inbreeding depression, and limited data that genetic diversity increases the potential for populations to adapt to changing environments. We suggest that artificial breeding programs should be used only as a last resort when populations face imminent extirpation and that such programs must shift the focus from solely preserving genetic diversity to preserving genetic adaptations.</jats:p
IMAGINING REDEMPTION: FICTIONAL FORMS AND SENSORY EXPERIENCE IN EARLY MODERN POETICS FROM SIDNEY TO MILTON
No full textThis project examines how four early modern authors—Sir Philip Sidney (d. 1586), William Shakespeare (d. 1616), Sir Francis Bacon (d. 1626), and John Milton (d. 1674)—viewed imaginative writing. I argue that all four writers see fictions as a potential instrument of cosmic redemption with the potential to mitigate the effects of the fall. Starting with Sidney’s Defence of Poesy, this dissertation traces a belief that fictions affect our often-unacknowledged assumptions about what is possible or likely in the world and the judgments we make about whether a fiction is believable or not. According to Sidney’s imaginative poetics, well-crafted fictions that appear to be a mimesis of the material world but contain elements of the poet’s “golden” world shift readers’ presuppositions, which in turn change how they interact with the material world and make the (formerly fictional) vision of the poet into material reality. For these writers, fictions’ impacts are profound but difficult to perceive because they change us and, through our actions, the world, essentially becoming fact because we have made them so.
In four chapters this project presents a theory of Sidney’s poetics and the unusual scope it granted to poets’ and readers’ imaginations, as well as the moral and cultural anxieties that his poetic theories provoked in his own writings and those of his literary successors. Chapter two reads Shakespeare’s King Lear as a study of imaginative excess and its civilizational consequences, calling into question whether or not restorative fictions can indeed keep delusive, self-destructive ones at bay. Shakespeare presents a nightmare vision of civilizational collapse in which fictions retain their persuasive power but lose their architectonic impulse. In response to this threat, Bacon’s poetics becomes an experiment in how rigorously we can restrain the imagination from knowledge creation while still keeping an unseen, providential, redemptive teleology in mind. Recognizing the dangers of too much or too little restraint on the imagination, Milton explores a formal solution in Paradise Regained. The poem’s fictional mediation of Jesus’ temptation and use of metaphors steers readers between excessive and deficient imaginative responses to the Son of God
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