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Primary Explanation (primary + explanation)
Selected AbstractsArea and the latitudinal diversity gradient for terrestrial birdsECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 6 2001Bradford A. Hawkins We tested the hypothesis that area represents the primary explanation for the latitudinal diversity gradient using breeding terrestrial birds of North America, the northern Palearctic, Australia and the Afrotropics as our focal group. We tested two propositions inherent to the area hypothesis: (1) tropical biomes are larger than extra-tropical biomes, and (2) there is a significant species-area relationship for birds at the biome scale of resolution. Using a more realistic definition of biomes which incorporates the effects of both energy and water, we find no support for either proposition, leading us to conclude that the area per se does not explain terrestrial latitudinal diversity gradients. [source] Carbon dioxide assimilation by a wetland sedge canopy exposed to ambient and elevated CO2: measurements and model analysisFUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2003D. P. Rasse Summary 1The wetland sedge Scirpus olneyi Gray displays fast rates of CO2 assimilation and responds positively to increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. The present study was aimed at identifying the ecophysiological traits specific to S. olneyi that drive these CO2 -assimilation patterns under ambient and elevated CO2 conditions. 2The net ecosystem exchange (NEE) of CO2 between S. olneyi communities and the atmosphere was measured in open-top chambers. 3We developed a new mechanistic model for S. olneyi communities based on published ecophysiological data and additional measurements of photosynthetic parameters. 4Our NEE measurements confirmed that S. olneyi communities have a high rate of summertime CO2 assimilation, with noontime peaks reaching 40 µmol CO2 m,2 ground s,1 on productive summer days, and that elevated CO2 increased S. olneyi CO2 assimilation by c. 35,40%. 5Using S. olneyi -specific ecophysiological parameters, comparison with measured NEE showed that the model accurately simulated these high rates of CO2 uptake under ambient or elevated CO2. 6The model pointed to the Rubisco capacity of Scirpus leaves associated with their high total nitrogen content as the primary explanation for the high rates of CO2 assimilation, and indicated that the vertical-leaf canopy structure of S. olneyi had comparatively little influence on CO2 assimilation. [source] IPF: new insight on pathogenesis and treatmentALLERGY, Issue 5 2010S. Harari To cite this article: Harari S, Caminati A. IPF: new insight on pathogenesis and treatment. Allergy 2010; 65: 537,553. Abstract Recent years have seen a robust influx of exciting new observations regarding the mechanisms that regulate the initiation and progression of pulmonary fibrosis but the pathogenesis remains poorly understood. The search for an alternative hypothesis to unremitting, chronic inflammation as the primary explanation for the pathophysiology of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) derives, in part, from the lack of therapeutic efficacy of high-dose immunosuppressive therapy in patients with IPF. The inflammatory hypothesis of IPF has since been challenged by the epithelial injury hypothesis, in which fibrosis is believed to result from epithelial injury, activation, and/or apoptosis with abnormal wound healing. This hypothesis suggests that recurrent unknown injury to distal pulmonary parenchyma causes repeated epithelial injury and apoptosis. The resultant loss of alveolar epithelium exposes the underlying basement membrane to oxidative damage and degradation. Emerging concepts suggest that IPF is the result of epithelial,mesenchymal interaction. The initiation of this fibrotic response may depend upon genetic factors and environmental triggers; the role of Th1 or Th2 cell-derived cytokines may also be important. This process appears to be unique to usual interstitial pneumonia/IPF. It is clear that IPF is a heterogeneous disease with variations in pathology, high-resolution computed tomography findings, and patterns of progression. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a complex disorder, and no unifying hypothesis has been identified at present that explains all the abnormalities. [source] Urban-biased Policies and the Increasing Rural,Urban Expenditure Gap in Vietnam in the 1990sASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 2 2010Eric Fesselmeyer O15; O18 There was a significant and widening rural,urban gap during the economic boom in Vietnam in the 1990s. Using an econometric decomposition, we find that differences in individual characteristics such as education, ethnicity and age are the primary explanation for this widening gap, whereas differences in the returns to these characteristics are the primary explanation for the increase in the gap at higher percentiles. We then argue that government investment policies and the manipulation of price incentives were important factors behind the gap. In particular, we argue that government policies created some benefit to urban dwellers at the expense of rural areas, lending support to Lipton's urban-bias hypothesis, which states that government, under strong political pressure from the urban population, directs resources from rural to urban areas without consideration of efficiency or equity. [source] Consistency of modelled and observed temperature trends in the tropical troposphereINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 13 2008B. D. Santer Abstract A recent report of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) identified a ,potentially serious inconsistency' between modelled and observed trends in tropical lapse rates (Karl et al., 2006). Early versions of satellite and radiosonde datasets suggested that the tropical surface had warmed more than the troposphere, while climate models consistently showed tropospheric amplification of surface warming in response to human-caused increases in well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs). We revisit such comparisons here using new observational estimates of surface and tropospheric temperature changes. We find that there is no longer a serious discrepancy between modelled and observed trends in tropical lapse rates. This emerging reconciliation of models and observations has two primary explanations. First, because of changes in the treatment of buoy and satellite information, new surface temperature datasets yield slightly reduced tropical warming relative to earlier versions. Second, recently developed satellite and radiosonde datasets show larger warming of the tropical lower troposphere. In the case of a new satellite dataset from Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), enhanced warming is due to an improved procedure of adjusting for inter-satellite biases. When the RSS-derived tropospheric temperature trend is compared with four different observed estimates of surface temperature change, the surface warming is invariably amplified in the tropical troposphere, consistent with model results. Even if we use data from a second satellite dataset with smaller tropospheric warming than in RSS, observed tropical lapse rate trends are not significantly different from those in all other model simulations. Our results contradict a recent claim that all simulated temperature trends in the tropical troposphere and in tropical lapse rates are inconsistent with observations. This claim was based on use of older radiosonde and satellite datasets, and on two methodological errors: the neglect of observational trend uncertainties introduced by interannual climate variability, and application of an inappropriate statistical ,consistency test'. Copyright © 2008 Royal Meteorological Society [source] A Unified Theory of Development: A Dialectic Integration of Nature and NurtureCHILD DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2010Arnold Sameroff The understanding of nature and nurture within developmental science has evolved with alternating ascendance of one or the other as primary explanations for individual differences in life course trajectories of success or failure. A dialectical perspective emphasizing the interconnectedness of individual and context is suggested to interpret the evolution of developmental science in similar terms to those necessary to explain the development of individual children. A unified theory of development is proposed to integrate personal change, context, regulation, and representational models of development. [source] | ||||||||||