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Whole Community (whole + community)
Selected AbstractsCollective trauma: the nightmare of history,PSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2004Arlene Audergon Abstract Although trauma is usually examined as an individual experience, it is a collective dynamic. Whole communities are traumatized and dynamics of trauma involve all of us and affect the course of history. An orientation to understanding trauma is needed that is at once personal, communal and political. This paper discusses why understanding the dynamics of trauma is essential for facilitators of conflict resolution in zones of conflict and for post-war reconciliation and community building. It also considers that, in addition to international tribunals and truth commissions, there is a need for community forums throughout society to work with issues of accountability and collective trauma concerning past and current conflicts. Trauma is also relevant to such issues as understanding dynamics of revenge, the silence accompanying atrocity, and historical revisionism. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Effects of transgenic glufosinate-tolerant oilseed rape (Brassica napus) and the associated herbicide application on eubacterial and Pseudomonas communities in the rhizosphereFEMS MICROBIOLOGY ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2002Stephen Gyamfi Abstract A containment experiment was carried out in order to evaluate possible shifts in eubacterial and Pseudomonas rhizosphere community structures due to the release of genetically modified Basta-tolerant oilseed rape and the associated herbicide application. Treatments included cultivation of the transgenic plant as well as of the wild-type cultivar in combination with mechanical removal of weeds and the application of the herbicides Basta (active ingredient: glufosinate) and Butisan S (active ingredient: metazachlor). Rhizosphere soil was sampled from early and late flowering plants as well as from senescent plants. A culture-independent approach was chosen to characterize microbial communities based on denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified from rhizosphere DNA using eubacterial and Pseudomonas -specific PCR primers. Dominant pseudomonads in the rhizosphere were analyzed by sequence analysis. Whole community and Pseudomonas electrophoresis fingerprints revealed slightly altered microbial communities in the rhizosphere of transgenic plants; however, effects were minor as compared to the plant developmental stage-dependent shifts. Both herbicides caused transient changes in the eubacterial and Pseudomonas population structure, whereas differences due to the genetic modification were still detected at the senescent growth stage. The observed differences between transgenic and wild-type lines were most likely due to unintentionally modified plant characteristics such as altered root exudation. [source] Interaction of landscape and life history attributes on genetic diversity, neutral divergence and gene flow in a pristine community of salmonidsMOLECULAR ECOLOGY, Issue 23 2009DANIEL GOMEZ-UCHIDA Abstract Landscape genetics holds promise for the forecasting of spatial patterns of genetic diversity based on key environmental features. Yet, the degree to which inferences based on single species can be extended to whole communities is not fully understood. We used a pristine and spatially structured community of three landlocked salmonids (Salvelinus fontinalis, Salmo salar, and Salvelinus alpinus) from Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland, Canada) to test several predictions on the interacting effects of landscape and life history variation on genetic diversity, neutral divergence, and gene flow (m, migration rate). Landscape factors consistently influenced multispecies genetic patterns: (i) waterfalls created strong dichotomies in genetic diversity and divergence between populations above and below them in all three salmonids; (ii) contemporary m decreased with waterway distance in all three species, while neutral genetic divergence (,) increased with waterway distance, albeit in only two taxa; (iii) river flow generally produced downstream-biased m between populations when waterfalls separated these, but not otherwise. In contrast, we expected differential life history to result in a hierarchy of neutral divergence (S. salar > S. fontinalis > S. alpinus) based on disparities in dispersal abilities and population size from previous mark-recapture studies. Such hierarchy additionally matched varying degrees of spatial genetic structure among species revealed through individual-based analyses. We conclude that, whereas key landscape attributes hold power to predict multispecies genetic patterns in equivalent communities, they are likely to interact with species-specific life history attributes such as dispersal, demography, and ecology, which will in turn affect holistic conservation strategies. [source] DOE genomics: Applications to in situ subsurface bioremediationREMEDIATION, Issue 1 2006Robert T. AndersonArticle first published online: 22 DEC 200 Microbial communities can greatly affect the mobility and fate of subsurface contaminants, yet relatively little is known about the functioning of microorganisms in subsurface environments. Major advances in DNA sequencing capability and the advent of genome-enabled studies have produced key insights into how microorganisms adapt to environmental conditions and/or biotransform subsurface contaminants starting from analyses of genome content. These techniques enable the researcher to detect how an organism responds to its environment and, potentially, to devise better methods to promote specific microbial activity in subsurface environments. The U.S. Department of Energy sponsors genome research through the Genomics:GTL program. One of the applications of this research is to better understand and control biological processes influencing the mobility of contaminants of concern to DOE such as metals and radionuclides. Genome and gene expression techniques have led to new insights into the functioning of subsurface microbial communities, but the true potential of these techniques is still to be revealed. As genome-enabled science progresses, techniques for evaluating gene expression patterns of whole communities will advance the understanding and development of optimized in situ bioremediation and more realistic simulations of microbial contaminant biotransformation. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.* [source] The use of indicator taxa as representatives of communities in bioassessmentFRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 8 2005R. C. NIJBOER Summary 1. Sampling and processing of benthic macroinvertebrate samples is time consuming and expensive. Although a number of cost-cutting options exist, a frequently asked question is how representative a subset of data is of the whole community, in particular in areas where habitat diversity is high (like Dutch surface water habitats). 2. Weighted averaging was used to reassign 650 samples to a typology of 40 community types, testing the representativeness of different subsets of data: (i) four different types of data (presence/absence, raw, 2log- and ln-transformed abundance), (ii) three subsets of ,indicator' taxa (taxa with indicator weights 4,12, 7,12, and 10,12) and (iii) single taxonomic groups (n = 14) by determining the classification error. 3. 2log- and ln-transformed abundances resulted in the lowest classification error, whilst the use of qualitative data resulted in a reduction of 10% of the samples assigned to their original community type compared to the use of ln-transformed abundance data. 4. Samples from community types with a high number of unique indicator taxa had the lowest classification error, and classification error increased as similarity among community types increased. Using a subset of indicator taxa resulted in a maximum increase of the classification error of 15% when only taxa with an indicator weight 10,12 were included (error = 49.1%). 5. Use of single taxonomic groups resulted in high classification error, the lowest classification error was found using Trichoptera (68%), and was related to the frequency of the taxonomic group among samples and the indicator weights of the taxa. 6. Our findings that the use of qualitative data, subsets of indicator taxa or single taxonomic groups resulted in high classification error implies low taxonomic redundancy, and supports the use of all taxa in characterising a macroinvertebrate community, in particular in areas where habitat diversity is high. [source] The effects of fragmentation on fluctuating asymmetry in passerine birds of Brazilian tropical forestsJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 6 2000M. Anciães Summary 1. ,Fluctuating asymmetry (FA) refers to the difference between the right and left sides in characters that should otherwise be bilaterally symmetrical, but whose expression is affected by epigenetic stress during development. Forest fragmentation may promote an increase in FA in isolated populations, by either genetic or environmental stress. FA may function as a biomonitor index in conservation biology if increased levels were observed in populations from fragmented habitats. 2. ,We tested the hypothesis that FA is higher in birds from small tropical forest patches than in large forest tracts. We measured wing and tarsus FA on mist-netted birds from seven fragments and seven continuous areas from south-eastern Atlantic rain forest in Brazil. We performed FA comparisons between fragments and control groups for the whole community, for individual foraging guilds and for the six most abundant species. 3. ,Wing and tarsus FA were significantly greater in fragments than continuous areas for the whole community and were both negatively correlated with forest fragment size. Differences in FA varied among foraging guilds, being more evident for insectivorous species, especially those feeding in or near the understorey. 4. ,FA levels increased significantly in forest fragments in at least one trait for five of the six most abundant species. There was no correlation between tarsus and wing asymmetries for the individuals of any species nor any difference between the degree of asymmetries of these characters. 5. ,We suggest that FA is a useful tool to assess the effects of fragmentation on forest birds, and may be applied in monitoring neotropical birds. FA indices might be profitably developed, particularly in species most threatened by fragmentation effects and when investigated in different morphological characters. [source] Experience of Hong Kong patients awaiting kidney transplantation in mainland ChinaJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 11c 2007Sylvie SH Leung MN Aim., This paper describes the experience of Hong Kong Chinese patients awaiting kidney transplantation in mainland China. Background., While travelling to mainland China for kidney transplantation is a controversial issue, there is an increasing trend of Hong Kong Chinese patients with chronic kidney disease seeking this treatment choice, which outnumbers that performed in Hong Kong. Although these patients seek pre- and post-transplantation care from Hong Kong public healthcare system, little is known about their experience during the waiting period. Methods., This experience is examined in an exploratory qualitative study. In-depth interviews were used to collect data from a purposive sample of 12 kidney recipients. Results., Three major findings are identified: (i) transplant waiting patients may travel to mainland China for transplantation in search of normal life, (ii) they need informational support from their continuing healthcare providers in Hong Kong to make the informed decision and (iii) they perceive a variation of attitudes of nurses and doctors in Hong Kong towards transplantation in mainland China. Conclusions., This study contributes to the literature by researching patients' perspective. The findings highlight the importance and controversy of addressing these patients' informational needs. While the authors have no inclination for or against travelling to mainland China for transplantation, the findings reveal a tenacious clinical dilemma, which deserves debate in international transplant community and further research to inform the debate. Nurse and doctors in Hong Kong may contribute to the debate by articulating their experience of caring for these patients. Relevance to clinical practice., Health information that is readily available for patients scheduled for kidney transplantation in Hong Kong should be made accessible to the whole community of patients with chronic kidney disease. To address the complexity of patients travelling to elsewhere for transplantation and the needs of these patients, provider reticence may be counterproductive. [source] Temporal trends in species composition and plant traits in natural grasslands of UruguayJOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 3 2003Claudia Rodríguez Cabrera (1970) Abstract. We report the successional trends of the major life-forms (graminoids and forbs) in natural grasslands of Uruguay over a 9-yr period after the removal of domestic herbivores. For the whole community, species richness and diversity decreased over the successional period. In graminoids we observed clear temporal trajectories in floristic composition; the rate of floristic change decreased with time and was associated with a shift in plant traits. The exclusion of large herbivores promoted erect and tall grasses with narrow leaves and greater seed length, vegetative growth constrained to the cool season and increased frequency of annual species. Forbs did not show a clear temporal trend in species composition, but there was, nevertheless, a plot-specific species turnover of this functional group that was reflected in their attributes. Species spreading by means of rhizomes, with vegetative growth restricted to the warm season. Species with larger seeds increased under grazing exclusion, as did annual and nitrogen-fixing forbs. The floristic changes induced by cattle exclusion occurred early in the succession. This early high rate of change has practical implications for management and conservation programs of the natural grasslands of Uruguay. Additionally, the shift in plant traits may be helpful in devising simple indicators of grazing impact. [source] Obesity in Mediterranean region (1997,2007): a systematic reviewOBESITY REVIEWS, Issue 5 2008C. Papandreou Summary The objective of this review is to determine the distribution of obesity by geographical location, income, age and sex in the Mediterranean region during the last decade. A meta-analysis was conducted for 102 articles cited during the period (1997,2007) in Medline database (for 17 Mediterranean countries) searched during the summer of 2007 using the word ,obesity' and its related keywords. The study showed that adults were more obese than children in all Mediterranean continents and in different levels of income. The prevalence of obesity among European children was higher than among Asians. Also, European adults were more obese than European children. The total female adults were found to be more obese (median: 25.3%) than male adults (median: 20.0%). The regression model analysis indicated that male adults were more likely to be obese in the Euro-Med region. Taking different factors into consideration, it was noticed that Mediterranean adults, especially those in the European region, are at higher risk of obesity. Awareness programmes addressing the importance of adopting healthy dietary habits combined with physical activity should target the whole community in general and adults in particular. The findings could guide health planners for better management of obesity. [source] What makes a species central in a cleaning mutualism network?OIKOS, Issue 8 2010Cristina Sazima Mutualisms often form networks of interacting species, characterized by the existence of a central core of species that potentially drive the ecology and the evolution of the whole community. Centrality measures allow quantification of how central or peripheral a species is within a network, thus informing about the role of each species in network organization, dynamics, and stability. In the present study we addressed the question whether the structural position of species in the network (i.e. their topological importance) relates to their ecological traits. We studied interactions between cleaner and client reef fishes to identify central and peripheral species within a mutualistic network, and investigated five ecological correlates. We used three measures to estimate the level of centrality of a species for distinct structural patterns, such as the number of interactions and the structural proximity to other species. Through the use of a principal component analysis (PCA) we observed that the centrality measures were highly correlated (92.5%) in the studied network, which indicates that the same species plays a similar role for the different structural patterns. Three cleaner and ten client species had positive values of centrality, which suggests that these species are modulating ecological and evolutionary dynamics within the network. Higher centralities were related to higher abundances and feeding habits for client fishes, but not for cleaners. The high correlation between centrality measures in the present study is likely related to the nested structure of the cleaning network. The cleaner species' set, by having central species that are not necessarily the most abundant ones, bears potentially more vulnerable points for network cohesiveness. Additionally, the present study generalizes previous findings for plant,animal mutualisms, as it shows that the structure of marine mutualisms is also related to a complex interplay between abundance and niche-related features. [source] The relative importance of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning on the coexistence of mycophagous insectsOIKOS, Issue 1 2005Kazuo H. Takahashi The relative importance of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning on coexistence was investigated for mycophagous insects in central Japan. The effects of spatial aggregation and resource partitioning were separated by a randomization procedure. From 124 patches of macrosporophores belonging to 37 species, 3275 individuals belonging to 14 families of Diptera and 11 individuals to Lepidoptera emerged. Since the level of identification varied among insect taxa, the analysis was made in three ways; 1) for all taxa to assess the stability of the whole community, 2) for drosophilid species to assess their persistence in the community, and 3) for species of Drosophila and Mycodrosophila to assess their persistence against congeneric and heterogeneric species. Both spatial aggregation and resource partitioning functioned for the stability of whole mycophagous insect community, and spatial aggregation played a more important role than resource partitioning. On the other hand, only spatial aggregation functioned for the persistence of drosophilid species in the community. According to the analysis on species of Drosophila and Mycodrosophila against congeneric and heterogeneric species, the relative importance of resource partitioning was smaller for the coexistence of within-genus species pairs than for that of between-genus species pairs. These results suggest that the relative importance of these two mechanisms depends on the phylogenetic and guild diversity of community. [source] Scientific Highlights from the ,k Network: Towards Atomistic Materials DesignPHYSICA STATUS SOLIDI (B) BASIC SOLID STATE PHYSICS, Issue 11 2006P. H. Dederichs The ,k network aims at encompassing the whole community of European groups working in the area of ab - initio materials modelling, including very many small groups and isolated researchers. Historically, the activities started in the 1980s in Trieste with the workshop series entitled "Total Energies and Forces". Since then, it has operated on the European level in various forms, with funding from various EC/EU and ESF sources, beginning more than 10 years ago with the EC's Human Capital and Mobility Programme. In that time, ,k has done much to make Europe the leading area in the world for research in atomic-scale ab - initio computer simulation of all types of materials, their structures, properties, and processes. To a large extent, this has been done by nurturing scientific excellence and collaboration in what might be called "the ,k family". The ,k Network is presently organized around 15 topical working groups. Over the years, the ,k network organized three large scale conferences in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (1996, 2000, 2005), attended by hundreds of scientists from all over the world. The next ,k Conference is to be organized in Berlin in 2010. These ,k Conferences are unique events fully dedicated to the ab - initio research. In addition, the network organizes a variety of meetings and topical workshops every year. The core activities of the ,k network involve editing every two months a ,k newsletter with typically more than 100 pages, which contains a "Scientific Highlight", announcements of conferences, workshops and vacant positions, news of various ESF and EU funded networks, including reports on workshops, and abstracts of submitted papers. The ,k has its own web pages (http://psi-k.dl.ac.uk) which inform about the Network, its structure, and how to get involved in ,k activities. These web pages are also the repository of the ,k newsletters and Scientific Highlights and details about the ,k Workshops of the most recent years. The ,k mailing list contains about 1700 e-mail addresses from across the world, and all the important information about a variety of activities of the network is distributed across this list on a daily basis. The "Scientific Highlights" of the ,k newsletters reflect the scientific activities of the network and aim at presenting reviews and current developments in the field. This special issue of physica status solidi (b) gives a collection of some of the most recent Highlight contributions to the ,k newsletter. All manuscripts originally posted on the ,k server were peer-reviewed by two referees and accepted according to the standards of pss. They are published here partly in revised or updated version. We hope that the readership of the journal will benefit from the quality of the research they report on and the high level of the presentations. [source] Modeling the Emergency Ambulance Pass-By of Small Rural Hospitals in Victoria, AustraliaTHE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 4 2005Patrick Gleeson MBA ABSTRACT: Context: Many small rural hospitals struggle to attract sufficient numbers of suitable patients. Inadequate patient throughput threatens the viability of these hospitals and, consequently, the financial, physical, and social well-being of the whole community. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many emergency ambulance patients are routinely taken past their local small rural hospital to the area's major receiving hospital. Purpose: To quantify the ambulance pass-by of local small rural hospitals and identify the factors that influence its occurrence. Methods: Data were collected from the ambulance and hospital records of 3 small rural centers in central Victoria, Australia. Results: Ambulances transport a significant number of patients past their local small rural hospitals to the area's major receiving hospital. This takes less time for paramedics than bringing a patient to the local hospital first if the patient is then redirected by that hospital to the larger hospital. There is an inverse relationship between the rate of cases in which the local hospital redirects ambulances to the regional hospital and the rate of ambulance crew decisions to use the local hospital. Conclusions: If some patients are being transported directly to the major receiving hospital because paramedics are considering their own time commitments when making patient transport decisions, this could have revenue implications for rural hospitals. Attracting appropriate local ambulance patients to the smaller hospitals may provide an income source that is currently lost to the crowded major receiving hospital's emergency department. [source] On a level field: the utility of studying native and non-native species in successional systemsAPPLIED VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 1 2009Scott J. Meiners Abstract Questions: How do successional systems contribute to our understanding of plant invasions? Why is a community-level approach important in understanding invasion? Do native and non-native plant species differ in their successional trajectories within communities? Location: Northeastern United States, in the Piedmont region of New Jersey. Previously farmed since the 1700s, ten fields were experimentally retired from agriculture beginning in 1958. Methods: Fifty years of permanent plot data were used to quantify the population demographics of the 84 most abundant species during succession. These measures were then used to compare native, non-native and non-native invasive species' population dynamics in succession. Results: Once basic life-history characteristics were accounted for, there were no differences in the population dynamics of native, non-native, and non-native invasive plant species. However, the species pool in this study was biased towards ruderal species, which largely constrained non-native species to early succession. Conclusion: Successional systems are crucial to our understanding of invasions as they constrain all species to the role of colonizer. By focusing on the whole community, rather than on individual problematic species, we found no systematic differences between native and non-native species. Thus, knowing simple life-history information about a species would be much more useful in setting management priorities than where the species originated. [source] Habitat selection and sampling design for ecological assessment of heterogeneous ponds using macroinvertebratesAQUATIC CONSERVATION: MARINE AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS, Issue 7 2009Cristina Trigal-Domínguez Abstract 1.Habitat heterogeneity has many implications in ecological assessment studies. On one hand it provides varying niches for organisms, increasing diversity. On the other hand, the inherent spatial variability of structurally complex systems may overlap with ecological condition making it difficult to disentangle the effects of perturbation. This study investigated the combined and single effects of habitat and pond condition on the macroinvertebrate assemblages of 35 ponds located in north-west Spain and spanning a range of water quality and habitat characteristics. 2.Macroinvertebrate communities and several environmental variables were sampled in the summer of 2004 or 2003. Samples were collected from four dominant habitats (vegetated shores, shores without vegetation, submerged vegetation, bare sediments) following a time-limited sampling. Non-metric multidimensional scaling and two-way crossed ANOSIM were used to investigate the taxonomic and functional differences in macroinvertebrate assemblage structure among habitats (four types) and pond conditions (optimal, good, moderate, poor, very poor). To investigate the individual and combined effects of pond condition and habitat on several diversity measures GLM models were used. In addition, the accuracy of two sampling designs , stratified and multihabitat , was compared using the CVs of seven macroinvertebrate attributes. 3.Results showed that macroinvertebrate communities differed significantly, albeit weakly, among habitat types and pond condition categories. In particular, the abundance of several Chironomidae genera, rarefied richness and Shannon index decreased both in perturbed systems and bare sediments, whereas no marked differences occurred between shores and submerged vegetation. 4.We suggest that a multihabitat approach together with the use of community attributes not (or slightly) affected by habitat type will provide more comparable results across ponds than a stratified approach or observation of the whole community, especially in ponds where degradation leads to habitat loss.Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Correlations between welfare initiatives and breastfeeding rates: a 10-year follow-up studyACTA PAEDIATRICA, Issue 1 2009Bruno Mordini Abstract Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of full breastfeeding during the first 6 months of age and to discover if training programs for health caregivers and welfare initiatives at the community level could improve breastfeeding rates. Methods: Newborn babies with gestational age ,36 weeks and birth weight ,2500 g, discharged from the hospital within the first week of life, without any underlying pathologies, were enrolled in 3-month long sample periods between 1997 and 2006. A questionnaire was distributed to the mothers, to be completed and submitted before hospital discharge. Data were collected from phone interviews at 1, 3 and 6 months. Results: Full breastfeeding rates at hospital discharge showed an oscillation between 69.9% and 87%. The rate decreased in the following months and reached very low levels at 6 months of age (<24%), with the exception of the last sample period in 2006 (44.9%). Conclusion: A simple questionnaire, combined with standardized phone interviews, can be easily reproduced and may be used as an indicator for quality of neonatal care at hospital nurseries. A social and cultural change of the whole community towards breastfeeding promotion will result in increasing breastfeeding rates. 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