Can one foresee whether young scientists will publish successfully during their careers? For academic biologists on four continents, we evaluated the effects of gender, native language, prestige of ...the institution at which they received their PhD, the date of their first publication (relative to the year of PhD completion), and their pre-PhD publication record as potential indicators of long-term publication success (10 years post-PhD). Pre-PhD publication success was the strongest correlate of long-term success. Gender, language, and the date of first publication had ancillary roles, with native English speakers, males, and those who published earlier in their career having minor advantages. Once these aspects were accounted for, university prestige had almost no discernable effect. We suggest that early publication success is vital for aspiring young scientists and that one of the easiest ways to identify rising stars is simply to find those who have published early and often.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly ...becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses. As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world’s major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve ‘health’: about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
► This is a meta-analysis of 249 studies of species distributions along tropical elevational gradients. ► The American tropics has more elevational specialists than do the African and Asia-Pacific ...tropics. ► Islands have relatively fewer elevational specialists than do continents. ► Relatively many plants and ectothermic vertebrates are higher-elevation specialists. ► Relatively few birds and mammals are high-elevation specialists
Tropical species with narrow elevational ranges may be thermally specialized and vulnerable to global warming. Local studies of distributions along elevational gradients reveal small-scale patterns but do not allow generalizations among geographic regions or taxa. We critically assessed data from 249 studies of species elevational distributions in the American, African, and Asia-Pacific tropics. Of these, 150 had sufficient data quality, sampling intensity, elevational range, and freedom from serious habitat disturbance to permit robust across-study comparisons. We found four main patterns: (1) species classified as elevational specialists (upper- or lower-zone specialists) are relatively more frequent in the American than Asia-Pacific tropics, with African tropics being intermediate; (2) elevational specialists are rare on islands, especially oceanic and smaller continental islands, largely due to a paucity of upper-zone specialists; (3) a relatively high proportion of plants and ectothermic vertebrates (amphibians and reptiles) are upper-zone specialists; and (4) relatively few endothermic vertebrates (birds and mammals) are upper-zone specialists. Understanding these broad-scale trends will help identify taxa and geographic regions vulnerable to global warming and highlight future research priorities.
Identifying Rising Stars in Biology LAURANCE, WILLIAM F.; USECHE, D. CAROLINA; LAURANCE, SUSAN G. ...
Bioscience,
03/2014, Letnik:
64, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Studies examining urban health and the environment must ensure comparability of measures across cities and countries. We describe a data platform and process that integrates health outcomes together ...with physical and social environment data to examine multilevel aspects of health across cities in 11 Latin American countries. We used two complementary sources to identify cities with ≥ 100,000 inhabitants as of 2010 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. We defined cities in three ways: administratively, quantitatively from satellite imagery, and based on country-defined metropolitan areas. In addition to “cities,” we identified sub-city units and smaller neighborhoods within them using census hierarchies. Selected physical environment (e.g., urban form, air pollution and transport) and social environment (e.g., income, education, safety) data were compiled for cities, sub-city units, and neighborhoods whenever possible using a range of sources. Harmonized mortality and health survey data were linked to city and sub-city units. Finer georeferencing is underway. We identified 371 cities and 1436 sub-city units in the 11 countries. The median city population was 234,553 inhabitants (IQR 141,942; 500,398). The systematic organization of cities, the initial task of this platform, was accomplished and further ongoing developments include the harmonization of mortality and survey measures using available sources for between country comparisons. A range of physical and social environment indicators can be created using available data. The flexible multilevel data structure accommodates heterogeneity in the data available and allows for varied multilevel research questions related to the associations of physical and social environment variables with variability in health outcomes within and across cities. The creation of such data platforms holds great promise to support researching with greater granularity the field of urban health in Latin America as well as serving as a resource for the evaluation of policies oriented to improve the health and environmental sustainability of cities.
Urban design features are often studied in relation to health and behavioural outcomes. They can also have major implications for environmental outcomes. However, the impact of these features on both ...health and environmental outcomes (co-benefits) is rarely examined. We investigated how urban landscape and street design profiles are related to jointly occurring health and environmental outcomes in Latin America cities.
We used data from the Salud Urbana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project, which has compiled and harmonised data on built environment, environmental exposures, and health outcomes for 370 cities in 11 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and Peru. Eight city profiles were identified using finite mixture models. Four urban-landscape profiles were defined measuring patch (contiguous area of urban development) fragmentation, shape, and isolation, and four street-design profiles were defined using street connectivity, length, and directness. Multilevel regression models were used to assess associations between the city profiles and several health and environmental outcomes.
Our preliminary results show that compared with the urban-landscape profile labelled scattered pixels (comprising low fragmentation, compact shape, and high isolation), the proximate-stones profile (moderate fragmentation, irregular shape, and moderate isolation) had significantly higher levels of PM2·5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and the proximate-inkblots profile (moderate-to-high fragmentation, complex shape, and moderate isolation) had significantly higher levels of violence-related deaths. Compared with the labyrinthine street design profile (low connectivity, moderate length, and moderate directness), the semi-hyperbolic grid (moderate connectivity, moderate length, and moderate directness) and spiderweb (high connectivity, low length, and moderate directness) profiles had significantly higher levels of PM2·5 and NO2, whereas the hyperbolic grid profile (moderate connectivity, high length, and low directness) had significantly higher levels of NO2 and lower levels of obesity.
Identifying how city profiles are related to environment and health outcomes can shed light on the urban policies that could have the greatest environment and health co-benefits.
The SALURBAL/Urban Health in Latin America project is funded by the Wellcome Trust (205177/Z/16/Z).
La generación e implementación de estrategias para disminuir la transmisión de SARS-CoV-2 son un reto imperante para el país. Las estrategias deben ser dinámicas y específicas para cada región ...buscando equilibrar el impacto en la salud y en la economía. Esta tarea debe abordarse desde un enfoque interdisciplinario con el fin de estudiar la problemática de manera holística. En el presente artículo se presentan algunos hallazgos y revisiones realizadas en el marco del proyecto SISCOVID, en el cual se utilizan modelos sistémicos de simulación computacional para apoyar la toma de decisiones para el control y mitigación de la pandemia en Colombia. El proyecto está conformado por investigadores de la Universidad de Los Andes, el Centro Nacional de Consultoría (CNC) y la Universidad de Ibagué, en alianza con universidades internacionales y empresas. El proyecto ha logrado apoyar a los tomadores de decisiones en formular estrategias para disminuir la transmisión de SARS-CoV-2 en contextos urbanos en las ciudades de Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena y Medellín. Palabras clave: SARS-CoV-2, Epidemiología, Prevención, Modelos sistémicos, Sistemas Complejos The development and implementation of strategies to reduce SARS-CoV2 transmission is a prevailing challenge for Colombia. These strategies ought to be dynamic and specific to each region, seeking to balance health and economic impacts. This task calls for an interdisciplinary approach to ensure a holistic view of the problem. This article presents findings and results obtained from the SISCOVID project, which used simulated systemic models to support decision making and efforts to mitigate the pandemic in Colombia. The project included researchers from Universidad de Los Andes, the Centro Nacional de Consultoría (CNC) and Universidad de Ibagué, in alliance with several international universities and companies. SISCOVID helped decision makers design strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in urban contexts for the cities of Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena, and Medellín. Key words: SARS-CoV-2, Epidemiology, Prevention, Systemic Models, Complex Systems
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