Gold mining in Ghana's forest reserves: a report on the current debate

This paper examines the debate surrounding a recent decision made by the Ghanaian government to permit gold exploration - and potentially, mining - in 'protected' forest reserves. In 2001, four mining companies were awarded mineral exploration concessions in forested regions of the country, and have since put forward applications to mine for gold. Notwithstanding the sharp divide in opinion on the issue, the continued uncertainty surrounding the implications of the proposed activities makes further research on the ground imperative in the short term. Work aiming to elicit indigenous perspectives on the projects, as well as research that facilitates dialogue between and/or among stakeholder parties, should be prioritized.

Fungicide resistance: the dose rate debate

It makes economic sense to use as little fungicide as possible on a crop. In many settings, it is common to apply less than the manufacturer's recommended dose. If sources of disease are scarce, or conditions are unsuitable for it to increase, the reduced control from a low dose may be adequate. In other cases, a big reduction in dose may cause little reduction in control, again permitting savings - especially for growers prepared to run a little risk. But the label recommendations for most fungicides state that to avoid resistance, a full dose must always be used. Are individual cost-savings therefore endangering everyone's access to an exceptionally useful tool? The emergence of fungicide resistance is evolution in action. In all cases, it involves the genetic replacement of the original susceptible population of the pathogen by a new population with genetically distinct biochemistry, which confers resistance. The resistant biochemistry originates in rare genetic mutations, so rare that initially the population is hardly altered. Replacement of susceptible forms by resistant ones happens because, with fungicide present, the resistant form multiplies more rapidly than the susceptible form. The key point to notice is that only the relative rates of multiplication of the resistant and susceptible types are involved in the evolution of resistance. The absolute rates are irrelevant.

The role of schizotypy and creativity in a group problem-solving task

The well-studied link between psychotic traits and creativity is a subject of much debate. The present study investigated the extent to which schizotypic personality traits - as measured by O-LIFE (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences) - equip healthy individuals to engage as groups in everyday tasks. From a sample of 69 students, eight groups of four participants - comprised of high, medium, or low-schizotypy individuals - were assembled to work as a team to complete a creative problem-solving task. Predictably, high scorers on the O-LIFE formulated a greater number of strategies to solve the task, indicative of creative divergent thinking. However, for task success (as measured by time taken to complete the problem) an inverted U shaped pattern emerged, whereby high and low-schizotypy groups were consistently faster than medium schizotypy groups. Intriguing data emerged concerning leadership within the groups, and other tangential findings relating to anxiety, competition and motivation were explored. These findings challenge the traditional cliche that psychotic personality traits are linearly related to creative performance, and suggest that the nature of the problem determines which thinking styles are optimally equipped to solve it. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.