Primary assembly of soil communities: disentangling the effect of dispersal and local environment

It has long been recognised that dispersal abilities and environmental factors are important in shaping invertebrate communities, but their relative importance for primary soil community assembly has not yet been disentangled. By studying soil communities along chronosequences on four recently emerged nunataks (ice-free land in glacial areas) in Iceland, we replicated environmental conditions spatially at various geographical distances. This allowed us to determine the underlying factors of primary community assembly with the help of metacommunity theories that predict different levels of dispersal constraints and effects of the local environment. Comparing community assembly of the nunataks with that of non-isolated deglaciated areas indicated that isolation of a few kilometres did not affect the colonisation of the soil invertebrates. When accounting for effects of geographical distances, soil age and plant richness explained a significant part of the variance observed in the distribution of the oribatid mites and collembola communities, respectively. Furthermore, null model analyses revealed less co-occurrence than expected by chance and also convergence in the body size ratio of co-occurring oribatids, which is consistent with species sorting. Geographical distances influenced species composition, indicating that the community is also assembled by dispersal, e.g. mass effect. When all the results are linked together, they demonstrate that local environmental factors are important in structuring the soil community assembly, but are accompanied with effects of dispersal that may "override" the visible effect of the local environment.

Consideration of future consequences and alcohol use among Northern Irish adolescents

This study investigated the relationship between consideration of future consequences and alcohol use among adolescents. A cross-sectional design was used and a large sample of 12-to 16-year-old schoolchildren (n = 806) in Northern Ireland were recruited for this study. Alcohol use was assessed using a composite measure of drinking behaviour, the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale. Time perspective was measured using the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (CFCS). Data were also gathered on self-esteem, three domains of self-efficacy and aggression, all of which have been found to be related to both drinking behaviour and time perspective. Factor analysis of the CFCS revealed support for a two-factor solution, with CFC-I representing present orientation and CFC-F representing future orientation. After controlling for year in school (proxy for age) and gender and for clustering at school level, scores on both subscales were significantly associated with alcohol use. Only CFC-F score remained significant with the addition of psychosocial variables. These results support recent findings of a significant relationship between CFCS score and alcohol use in UK adolescents and University undergraduates, and suggest that in more fully controlled analyses, future orientation, rather than present, is related to adolescent drinking. Results are discussed in relation to health promotion. © 2013 Informa UK Ltd.

After the Male Breadwinner Model? Childcare Services and the Division of Labor in European Countries

Fundamental reforms in childcare services appear to have eroded traditional
support to the male breadwinner model across European states. There has been a strong debate about the direction of these changes, and the ways in which childcare services can alter the division of labor and promote gender equality. This paper deals with these issues by using fuzzy set ideal-type analysis to assess the conformity of childcare service provisions in European economies to Fraser’s four ideal typical models: male breadwinner, caregiver parity, universal breadwinner, and universal caregiver. We find that there is resilience of traditional gender roles in the majority of European countries, while there are different variants of the universal breadwinner shaping different forms of childcare policies. The more equalitarian universal caregiver model maintains its utopian character.

A Lagrangian approach for modeling road collisions using second-order models of traffic flow

In [M. Herty, A. Klein, S. Moutari, V. Schleper, and G. Steinaur, IMA J. Appl. Math., 78(5), 1087–1108, 2013] and [M. Herty and V. Schleper, ZAMM J. Appl. Math. Mech., 91, 763–776, 2011], a macroscopic approach, derived from fluid-dynamics models, has been introduced to infer traffic conditions prone to road traffic collisions along highways’ sections. In these studies, the governing equations are coupled within an Eulerian framework, which assumes fixed interfaces between the models. A coupling in Lagrangian coordinates would enable us to get rid of this (not very realistic) assumption. In this paper, we investigate the well-posedness and the suitability of the coupling of the governing equations within the Lagrangian framework. Further, we illustrate some features of the proposed approach through some numerical simulations.

A review of the global pesticide legislation and the scale of challenge in reaching the global harmonization of food safety standards

Pesticide use is important in agriculture to protect crops and improve productivity. However, they have the potential to cause adverse human health or environmental effects, dependent on exposure levels. This review examines existing pesticide legislation worldwide, focusing on the level of harmonisation, and impacts of differing legislation on food safety and trade. Pesticide legislation varies greatly worldwide as countries have different requirements guidelines and legal limits for plant protection. Developed nations have more stringent regulations than developing countries, which lack the resources and expertise to adequately implement and enforce legislation. Global differences in pesticide legislation act as a technical barrier to trade. International parties such as the European Union (EU), Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have attempted to harmonise pesticide legislation by providing maximum residue limits (MRLs), but globally these limits remain variable. Globally harmonised pesticide standards would serve to increase productivity, profits and trade, and enhance the ability to protect public health and the environment. 

The whole song is greater than the sum of its parts: Local and structural features in music listening

Four experiments reported here demonstrate the importance of structural as well as local features in listening to contemporary popular music. Experiment 1 established that listeners without formal musical training regard as salient the formal structure that links individual sections of songs. When asked to listen to and assemble the individual sections of unfamiliar contemporary songs to form new compositions, participants positioned the sections in ways consistent with the true structure of the music. In Experiment 2, participants were provided with only the song lyrics with which to arrange the individual sections of contemporary songs. It was found that in addition to musical features
studied in Experiment 1, lyrical content of contemporary music also acts as a strong cue to a song’s formal structure. Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that listeners’ enjoyment of music is influenced both by structural features and local features of music, which were carried by the individual song sections.
The influence of structural features on music listening was most apparent over repeated hearings. In Experiment 4, listeners’ liking for contemporary music followed an inverted U-shape trend with repeated exposure, in which liking for music took a downward turn after just four repeated hearings. In contrast, liking for restructured music increased with repeated hearings and almost eliminated an initial negative effect of restructuring by the sixth hearing. In sum, our findings demonstrate that structural features as well as local features of contemporary music are salient and important to
listeners.

Forensic analysis of wooden safety matches - A case study

In this case, an individual was suspected of attempting to burn materials potentially relating to a murder case. A number of spent and unspent matches were seized at the scene by police for forensic examination. Coincidentally, a police raid at the suspect's house revealed a number of matchboxes, all of the same brand, containing matches that had a visual similarity to those recovered at the scene. Stable Isotope Profiling (SIP) was used to assess whether matches could either be distinguished or shown to be indistinguishable by 13C and 2H isotopic composition. These results were then compared to those from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of match heads and microscopy of the wood. SIP showed the scene matches and seized matches to be different, which was confirmed by XRD and microscopy analyses.

The signature of fine scale local adaptation in Atlantic salmon revealed from common garden experiments in nature

Understanding the extent, scale and genetic basis of local adaptation is important for conservation and management. Its relevance in salmonids at microgeographic scales, where dispersal (and hence potential gene flow) can be substantial, has however been questioned. Here we compare the fitness of communally-reared offspring of local and foreign Atlantic salmon Salmo salar from adjacent Irish rivers and reciprocal F1 hybrid crosses between them, in the wild ‘home’ environment of the local population. Experimental groups did not differ in wild smolt output but a catastrophic flood event may have limited our ability to detect freshwater performance differences, which were evident in a previous study. Foreign parr exhibited higher, and hybrids intermediate, emigration rates from the natal stream relative to local parr, consistent with genetically-based behavioural differences. Adult return rates were lower for the foreign compared to the local group. Overall lifetime success of foreigners and hybrids relative to locals was estimated at 31% and 40% (mean of both hybrid groups), respectively. The results imply a genetic basis to fitness differences among populations separated by only 50km, driven largely by variation in smolt to adult return rates. Hence even if supplementary stocking programs obtain broodstock from neighbouring rivers, the risk of extrinsic outbreeding depression may be high.

Market Economies with an Endogenous Social Division of Labour

This paper considers a general equilibrium theory of a competitive market economy with an endogenous social division of labour. The theory is founded on the notion of a “consumer- producer”, who consumes as well as produces commodities. In this approach, the emergence of a meaningful social division of labour is guided by the property of increasing returns to specialisation and the process of trade among fully specialised individuals. All decisions of individual consumer-producers are based on a set of perfectly competitive market prices of the commodities in the economy.
We show that a perfectly competitive price mechanism supports a dichotomy of production and consumption at the level of the individual consumer-producer. In this context we show existence of competitive equilibria and characterise these equilibria under increasing returns to specialisation: Under certain well-described conditions, markets are equilibrated through adjustment of the social division of labour; therefore prices are fully determined by the supply side of the economy.