The conflict between increasing human population and biodiversity conservation is one of the IUCN's key threatening processes. Conservation planning has received a great deal of coverage and research ...as a way of conserving biodiversity yet, while theoretically successful, it has never been tested. Simple lines on maps to illustrate conservation areas are unlikely to be successful in the light of human encroachment. It may be that some form of overt display is necessary to ensure the protection of reserves. This may be signage, presence of guards/rangers or physical fencing structures. The need for some form of barrier goes beyond restricting human access. The megafauna of Africa pose a genuine threat to human survival. In southern Africa, fences keep animals in and protect the abutting human population. Elsewhere, fencing is not considered important or viable. Where poverty is rife, it won't take much to tip the balance from beneficial conservation areas to troublesome repositories of crop-raiders, diseases and killers. Conversely, in New Zealand fences are used to keep animals out. Introduced species have decimated New Zealand's endemic birds, reptiles and invertebrates, and several sites have been entirely encapsulated in mouse-proof fencing to ensure their protection. Australia faces the same problems as New Zealand, however surrounds its national parks with cattle fences. Foxes and cats are free to enter and leave at will, resulting in rapid recolonisation following poisoning campaigns. How long will these poison campaigns work before tolerance, aversion or resistance evolves in the introduced predator populations?
The relevance of preschool children's understanding of nature, its elements, how it affects the behavior of human beings, and how human beings influence it, is a two-purpose task. First, it helps to ...identify the necessary elements for the design of programs that have a significant impact in the development of environmental identity. Second, it also assists in the implementation of environmental education in the school curriculum in Mexico, in order to develop attitudes to preserve the environment from an early age. Based on this logic, the objective of this study was to identify the components of the concept of nature and its relationship with environmental identity, from drawings made by preschool children in a desert environment through a visual discursive analysis. The sample consisted of 118 preschool students whose ages ranged between 5 and 6 years. Participants were selected from four different schools in Hermosillo, Mexico: three located in the urban area and one on the coastal area of the State of Sonora. Participants were asked to draw the first thing that came to their minds when they heard the word nature. As a result, all the drawings presented categories such as plants, animals, waterbodies, celestial bodies, abiotic factors, natural locations, locations made by man, and others. Finally, the analysis showed that a general idea of what nature represents to children includes elements of known flora and fauna; however, they did not capture elements of the desert region in which they live. In addition, most participants' self-definition contained environmental identity.
It remains a matter of debate whether traditional concepts regarding the nature of food affect the development and progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).To date, there are limited studies that have ...investigated the association between MS and dietary patterns based on the categories of food nature (hot, cold, or balanced) defined in traditional medicine.
This case-control study was conducted from October 2019 to February 2020. In total, 60 patients diagnosed with MS within the preceding 6 months and referred to our neurology outpatient clinic were included in our case group. The control group included 180 patients who were referred to the same center for general or orthopedic surgery. Dietary intake was assessed in both groups through a reliable and valid semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Data were assessed using principal component analysis.
The mean age of the participants was 44.9 ± 17.33 years. The analysis showed that four food patterns were distinguished (eigenvalue > 1), namely "additives and cold-natured foods", "hot and balanced foods and nuts", "dairy and legumes", and "hot and balanced starches". These food patterns explained 57.8% of the total variance. After adjusting all confounding factors, individuals in the highest quartile and medium quartile of "additives and cold-natured foods" had an elevated MS risk compared with the lowest quartile (OR = 7.21, 95%CI = 2.01-12.38 and OR = 3.37, 95%CI = 1.02-11.35, respectively). Furthermore, individuals in the highest quartile of the "hot and balanced foods and nuts" group were protected against MS compared with its lowest quartile (OR = 0.28, 95%CI = 0.08-0.90). Moreover, a protective effect against MS was seen in the highest quartile of the "hot and balanced starches" group relative to its lowest quartile (OR = 0.34, 95%CI = 0.12-0.98). No significant association was found between "dairy and legumes" and the risk of MS.
This study revealed that dietary patterns based on the traditional concept of food nature might be associated with the risk of developing MS. This represents the first work in this area, so further research is recommended.
Wildlife populations in the northern reaches of the globe have long been observed to fluctuate or cycle periodically, with dramatic increases followed by catastrophic crashes. Focusing on the early ...work of Charles S. Elton, this article analyzes how investigations into population cycles shaped the development of AngloAmerican animal ecology during the 1920s-1930s. Population cycling revealed patterns that challenged ideas about the "balance" of nature; stimulated efforts to quantify population data; and brought animal ecology into conversation with intellectual debates about natural selection. Elton used the problem of understanding wildlife population cycles to explore a central tension in ecological thought: the relative influences of local conditions (food supply, predation) and universal forces (such as climate change and natural selection) in regulating wild animal populations. He also sought patronage and built research practices and the influential Bureau of Animal Population around questions of population regulation during the 1930s. Focusing on disease as a local population regulator that could interact with global climatic influences, Elton facilitated an interdisciplinary and population-based approach in early animal ecology. Elton created a network of epidemiologists, conservationists, pathologists and mathematicians, who contributed to population cycle research. I argue that, although these people often remained peripheral to ecology, their ideas shaped the young discipline. Particularly important were the concepts of abundance, density, and disease; and the interactions between these factors and natural selection. However, Elton's reliance on density dependence unwittingly helped set up conditions conducive to the development of controversies in animal ecology in later years. While ecologists did not come to consensus on the ultimate causes of population cycles, this phenomenon was an important early catalyst for the development of theory and practice in animal ecology.
This review presents Reisebilder, an omnibus consisting of 17 articles, the result of a conference in cultural anthropology. The main themes are images, stereotypes and symbols that have evolved ...within tourism. The majority of the texts stem from studies analysing historical and contemporary themes based on secondary sources. The book lacks empiricist investigations that analyse the perception, identity and everyday culture of tourists. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0204103
Since the instinct hypothesis was discarded and replaced by a discussion of biological foundations of behavior, motives, and emotion, there has been the need for a valid conception of innate nature ...to replace the original tendencies and primary propensities taught in basic texts like McDougall's Social Psychology and Thorndike's Educational Psychology. Social scientists need to distinguish between fundamental innate needs and those developed by cultural surroundings. According to the modern view, original nature is what appears in the absence of education, and it is due to interaction of both heredity and environment, rather than representing fixed characteristics which would show themselves regardless of type of environment. Pertinent materials have accumulated from anthropology, physiology, and animal and child psychology in terms of which to build a new picture of man's innate nature.
Der Naturbegriff ist unzweifelhaft einer der Grundbegriffe frühneuzeitlicher Wissenschaft und Literatur. Die hier versammelten Beiträge stellen semantische Perspektiven des Naturbegriffs in der ...Frühen Neuzeit vor. In eingehenden Analysen werden seine philosophischen und wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen Funktionen ebenso diskutiert wie seine theologischen, magisch-alchemischen, musiktheoretischen und literarischen Bedeutungsspektren.
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