bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fire and competition in a southern California grassland: impacts on the rare forb Erodium macrophyllum
Authors: GILLESPIE IAN G. , ALLEN EDITH B. 
Published: July 2004

Summary

The use of off‐season burns to control exotic vegetation shows promise for land managers. In California, wildfires tend to occur in the summer and autumn, when most grassland vegetation is dormant. The effects of spring fires on native bunchgrasses have been examined but their impacts on native forbs have received less attention.
We introduced Erodium macrophyllum, a rare native annual forb, by seeding plots in 10 different areas in a California grassland. We tested the hypotheses that E. macrophyllum would perform better (increased fecundity and germination) when competing with native grasses than with a mixture of exotic and native grasses, and fire would alter subsequent demography of E. macrophyllum and other species’ abundances. We monitored the demography of E. macrophyllum for two seasons in plots manually weeded so that they were free from exotics, and in areas that were burned or not burned the spring after seeding.
Weeding increased E. macrophyllum seedling emergence, survival and fecundity during both seasons. When vegetation was burned in June 2001 (at the end of the first growing season) to kill exotic grass seeds before they dispersed, all E. macrophyllum plants had finished their life cycle and dispersed seeds, suggesting that burns at this time of year would not directly impact on fecundity. In the growing season after burning (2002), burned plots had less recruitment of E. macrophyllum but more establishment of native grass seedlings, suggesting burning may differentially affect seedling recruitment.
At the end of the second growing season (June 2002), burned plots had less cover of exotic and native grasses but more cover of exotic forbs. Nevertheless, E. macrophyllum plants in burned plots had greater fecundity than in non‐burned plots, suggesting that exotic grasses are more competitive than exotic forbs.
A glasshouse study showed that exotic grasses competitively suppress E. macrophyllum to a greater extent than native grasses, indicating that the poor performance of E. macrophyllum in the non‐burned plots was due to exotic grass competition.
Synthesis and applications. This study illustrates that fire can alter the competitive environment in grasslands with differential effects on rare forbs, and that exotic grasses strongly interfere with E. macrophyllum. For land managers, the benefits of prescribed spring burns will probably outweigh the costs of decreased E. macrophyllum establishment. Land managers can use spring burns to cause a flush of native grass recruitment and to create an environment that is, although abundant with exotic forbs, ultimately less competitive compared with non‐burned areas dominated by exotic grasses.
Molecular techniques, wildlife management and the importance of genetic population structure and dispersal: a case study with feral pigs
Authors: HAMPTON JORDAN O. , SPENCER PETER B. S. , ALPERS DERYN L. , TWIGG LAURIE E. , WOOLNOUGH ANDREW P. , DOUST JEFF , HIGGS TONY , PLUSKE JOHN 
Published: July 2004

Summary

Understanding the spatial structure of populations is important in developing effective management strategies for feral and invasive species, such as feral pigs Sus scrofa. World‐wide, feral pigs can act as ‘triple threat’ pests, impacting upon biodiversity, agricultural production and public health; in Australia they are a significant vertebrate pest. We utilized a molecular approach to investigate the structure of populations of feral pigs in south‐western Australia. These approaches have been underutilized in pest management.
Using 14 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers from 276 adult pigs, we identified eight inferred (K = 8) pig populations that would be difficult to define with standard ecological techniques. All populations had moderate heterozygosity (HE = 0·680) and moderate to high levels of differentiation (FST = 0·118; RST = 0·132) between populations.
The molecular approach identified feral pig groups that appeared to be acting as a source for reinvasion following control operations. It also identified populations where current control measures were less successful in reducing ‘effective population size’. Additionally, the data indicated that dispersal rates between, but not within, the inferred feral pig populations were relatively low.
The potential for the spread of directly transmitted wildlife diseases between the pig populations studied was low. However, under some circumstances, such as within major river catchments, the role of feral pigs in the transmission of endemic or exotic diseases is likely to be high.
Synthesis and applications. A molecular‐based approach allowed us to determine the genetic structure and dispersal patterns of a cryptic, destructive and invasive vertebrate pest. Our results indicated that the feral pig populations studied were unlikely to be acting as closed populations and, importantly, it identified where movement between groups was likely to occur. This should lead to more informed decisions for managing the potential risk posed by feral species, such as pigs, in the transmission of wildlife diseases. The suggested technique could help in understanding the dynamics of many other free‐ranging pest animal populations.
Application of the fire–grazing interaction to restore a shifting mosaic on tallgrass prairie
Authors: FUHLENDORF S. D. , ENGLE D. M. 
Published: July 2004

Summary

Management of rangelands has long operated under the paradigm of minimizing spatially discrete disturbances, often under the objective of reducing inherent heterogeneity within managed ecosystems. Management of grazing animals has focused on uniform distribution of disturbance, so that no areas are heavily disturbed or undisturbed (i.e. management to the ‘middle’).
A model of the fire–grazing interaction argues that grazing and fire interact through a series of positive and negative feedbacks to cause a shifting mosaic of vegetation pattern across the landscape. This interaction was important in the evolution of species in the North American Great Plains grasslands. This approach has the potential to serve as an ecological‐based model for management of grasslands with a long evolutionary history of grazing.
We compared a heterogeneity‐based approach, in which fire is applied to discrete patches, with typical homogeneity‐based land management in the North American Great Plains, to determine if patch burning followed by focal grazing creates a shifting mosaic pattern of vegetation structure and composition.
Our data suggest that spatially discrete fires promote focal grazing, where grazing animals devote 75% of grazing time within the one‐third of the area that has been burned within the past year. These focal disturbances cause local changes in the plant community and increase patch‐level heterogeneity across landscapes. As the focal disturbance is shifted to other patches over time, successional processes lead to changes in local plant communities and the patchwork landscape can be described as a shifting mosaic.
A patch‐dynamic approach can be accomplished in the tallgrass prairie through applying spatially discrete fires and allowing animals free access to a diversity of landscape elements that vary in time since focal disturbance. This increases heterogeneity across the landscape, a variable that has been shown to be critical to some wildlife species as well as the structure and function of grassland ecosystems.
Synthesis and applications. Our study demonstrates that the fire‐grazing model may be useful for generating heterogeneity in grassland management. Discrete fires are applied to patches, and patchy grazing by herbivores promotes a shifting vegetation mosaic across the landscape. Furthermore, application of the model has the potential of increasing the area of rangelands under management for conservation purposes, because livestock production is maintained at a level similar to traditional management. So, by managing transient focal patches that move through the landscape, heterogeneity has the potential to be a central paradigm for managing landscapes for multiple objectives, such as biodiversity and agricultural productivity.
The problems of prediction and scale in applied ecology: the example of fire as a management tool
Authors: FRECKLETON ROBERT P. 
Published: July 2004

Summary

Predicting the large‐scale consequences of novel management practices requires that we are able to accurately predict how such management will affect ecological landscapes based on short‐term datasets. In this profile we highlight the lessons learned from four studies into the large‐scale effects of fires as management tools.
Ecological interactions are key to understanding the effects of fires. Species respond differentially to processes such as competition and herbivory, as well as to fires. This means that community composition may change substantially with changing frequency of fires.
The studies highlighted in this profile reinforce the role of fire in modulating the frequency of invasion of alien species in a range of ecosystem types. In two of the studies, alien species were superior competitors to native ones in the absence of fires, but unable to regenerate following fires.
In the future, it will be necessary that the results of short‐term experiments are integrated with long‐term observational data and with theoretical models to predict long‐term dynamics. We discuss how this may be done.
Synthesis and applications. The studies of the management of ecosystems using fires as a tool are prime examples of the application of ecology. In addition to measuring the proximate effects of such management using experiments, it is necessary to understand in detail the effects of fire on the underlying interactions between species, and feedbacks between different components of ecosystems.
From Data to Theory: the Over‐Representation of Linguistic Knowledge in SLA
Authors: Myles Florence 
Published: July 2004

AbstractThis article deals with the over‐representation of syntactic knowledge in L2 learner data. In early L2 grammars, multimorphemic sequences which go well beyond learners’ grammatical competence are very common. Influential theories of the L2 initial state have failed to take proper account of this phenomenon, claiming the apparent presence of, e.g., finite verb forms, wh questions and clitics, as evidence for functional projections from the start of L2 acquisition. However, data from early learners show that these properties are not present outside chunks initially, and that early grammars consist of lexical projections and formulaic sequences, showing no evidence of functional categories.
Negation in French–Chinese, German–Chinese and English–Chinese Interlanguages
Authors: Yuan Boping 
Published: July 2004

AbstractThis article reports on an empirical study of L2 acquisition of Chinese negation by French‐, German‐ and English‐speaking learners. With regard to the syntactic structure of clausal negation, French and German are different from Chinese while English and Chinese are similar. It was hypothesised that it would be easier for English‐speaking learners than for French‐ and German‐speaking learners to acquire the syntactic structure of Chinese negation. However, this hypothesis is disconfirmed by the results of the study; little variation is found between the L2 groups in the acquisition of Chinese negation and their behaviours are all native‐like. These results present a challenge to some influential L2‐acquisition hypotheses. The findings suggest that L2 grammars can have fully and appropriately specified features of functional categories from the initial stage of L2 acquisition even though these features may have different values in learners’ L1s.
Representation, Processing and Working Memory in a Second Language
Authors: Juffs Alan 
Published: July 2004

AbstractCurrent theories of morphosyntax propose that features play a key role in determining some aspects of word order and in the argument structure of verbs. Thus, knowledge of language consists of features and mechanisms that ensure that elements in a clause are assembled correctly for interpretation and phonological processing. Therefore, the nature of the grammar of an L2 can be explored by assessing whether features and the mechanisms through which they are assembled and checked is ‘impaired’ or not. This article assumes that processing performance can provide a window onto this grammatical competence. Evidence is presented from online processing of English by thirty Chinese‐speaking, twenty‐eight Japanese‐speaking, and forty‐six Spanish‐speaking participants which shows that the basic mechanisms of grammar remain intact for L2 learners in spite of inferior performance on judgements of those same sentences. Data suggest that working memory, as measured by the reading‐span test (Daneman and Carpenter 1980), is not a source of individual variation in online L2 performance, whereas word span might be.
Segmentation: Learning How to ‘Hear Words’ in the L2 Speech Stream
Authors: Carroll Susanne E. 
Published: July 2004

AbstractWe ‘hear words’ when we can segment prosodic units from the speech stream and activate associated lexical entries. Segmentation is sometimes regarded in SLA as a perceptual problem, not a grammatical one. I argue here that this view is wrong: segmenting formatives results when we construct prosodic units on the basis of phonetic cues to their edges. The learner's first task is to acquire the relevant cues to these edges. The problem of segmentation is discussed within the framework provided by the Autonomous Induction Theory.
In Two Minds about Grammar: on the Interaction of Linguistic and Metalinguistic Knowledge in Performance
Authors: Sharwood Smith Mike 
Published: July 2004

AbstractThe investigation and discussion of metalinguistic ability requires a firm theoretical foundation if it is to contribute to a proper account of its role in L1 and L2 performance. A framework for elaborating more rigorous accounts of this and other major issues of language acquisition and performance will be presented here as a prerequisite to discussing the role of metalinguistic knowledge. In this framework, language performance is seen as involving two parallel language systems, one subserved by systems largely controlled by the principles of Universal Grammar (UG), the other, a metagrammar, existing outside the UG‐controlled zone. To all intents and purposes they are quite divorced from one another but somehow have to act in concert to serve the various aims of the speaker.
Technological Disasters, Litigation Stress, and the Use of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms*
Authors: MARSHALL BRENT K. , PICOU J. STEVEN , SCHLICHTMANN JAN R. 
Published: July 2004

The legal system in the United States is uniquely conflict‐oriented, expensive, and legalistic. From the perspective of victims, we contend that adversarial litigation is particularly ineffective as a means of resolving conflicts that typically ensue in the aftermath of technological disasters. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we discuss why the psychosocial impact of litigation on litigants following a technological disaster is particularly damaging. Second, examining longitudinal data collected following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, we demonstrate that the litigation process itself functions as a source of secondary trauma for litigants. Third, we provide suggestions for bypassing the litigation process altogether, via alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. Although it may be that we have exchanged swords and cudgels for subpoenas and depositions, an aura of combat continues to hover about the judicial process, and combat produces casualties.
Strasburger (1999: 203)
Comparisons of Motivation, Health Behaviors, and Functional Status Among Elders in Residential Homes in Korea
Authors: Song Rhayun , June Kyung Ja , Kim Chun Gill , Jeon Mi Yang 
Published: July 2004

Abstract  This study compared the changes in health behaviors, motivation, and functional status between motivation enhancement exercise‐program participants and program dropouts over 6 months. A total of 73 older adults living in residential homes participated in the study. Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted at pretest and then at 10 weeks and 6 months in the program. The participants exercised using traditional Korean dance movements for 50 min, 4 times per week, for 6 months. The subjects were classified as participants or dropouts by using a cutoff attendance rate of 80%. Repeated ANOVA revealed the following results over 6 months:

The motivation to perform health behaviors, especially for perceived benefits, improved significantly for the participants than for the dropouts.
Significant differences in the performance of overall health behaviors and exercise‐related behaviors were found between the participants and the dropouts.
The sickness impact profile (SIP) of the participants improved significantly, compared with the dropouts. Significant group differences were found for total SIP, physical dimensions, and enjoyment of recreation and pastimes.

In conclusion, the study found that the 6‐month motivation enhancement program was effective in motivating older adults to perform health behaviors and to improve their functional status.
Effects of pre‐slaughter nutritional condition on intramuscular collagen solubility, pyridinoline cross‐links and meat tenderness in aged goats
Authors: SHIBA Nobuya , MATSUZAKI Masatoshi , TSUNEISHI Eisaku 
Published: July 2004

ABSTRACTEffects of preslaughter nutritional condition on intramuscular collagen characteristics were studied, in order to clarify the potential of intensive feeding to aged animals in improving meat tenderness. Ten castrated male goats were assigned into one of two groups: one group was allowed ad libitum access to a concentrate diet (total digestible nutrients 70%, crude protein 15%) and Italian ryegrass hay (ADLIB‐group), and the other group was fed a restricted amount of their diet (concentrate diet 0.5% of bodyweight/day; hay 1.5% of bodyweight/day) to maintain their bodyweight (MAIN‐group). After 3 months of the experimental period, goats were slaughtered and meat samples were obtained immediately. Goats in ADLIB‐group had lower total and insoluble collagen concentrations, higher fat concentrations and collagen solubility than those in MAIN‐group, but soluble collagen concentrations of muscles were similar for both groups. Goats in ADLIB‐group had lower pyridinoline concentrations than those in MAIN‐group, in all muscles, but the differences of pyridinoline concentration between the groups were not statistically significant. Warner‐Bratzler shear force values of Longissimus and Biceps femoris muscles were lower in ADLIB‐group than in MAIN‐group. The increase of meat tenderness by preslaughter intensive feeding seemed to be associated with the increase in intramuscular fat deposition and high collagen solubility, and pyridinoline cross‐link appeared to be one of the factors related to collagen solubility.
Clearing the cervical spine after polytrauma: implementing unified management for unconscious victims in the intensive care unit
Authors: Morris C. G. , Mullan B. 
Published: July 2004

SummaryDetermining the best method for excluding cervical spine injury while a polytrauma victim is unconscious remains a controversial topic despite a number of published guidelines. A structured questionnaire demonstrated major differences between intensivists, neurosurgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and spinal surgeons with regard to the imaging modalities requested, the perception of their performance, the relative risks of missed injuries and the complications of immobilisation. Unconscious victims of polytrauma often come under the care of several subspecialties, with the direct consequence that management can be contradictory and lack standardisation. Advanced Trauma Life Support and Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma guidelines can reinforce and even contribute to non‐standardised care. Having performed this clinician survey, we have now developed a multidisciplinary management protocol appropriate for Northern Ireland.
An audit of peribulbar blockade using 15 mm, 25 mm and 37.5 mm needles, and sub‐Tenon's injection*
Authors: Van Den Berg A. A. 
Published: July 2004

SummaryThe efficacy of peribulbar anaesthesia performed with short, medium and long needles, with sub‐Tenon's injection as a control, was audited. Two hundred patients undergoing cataract surgery underwent peribulbar injection using 25G needles of the following lengths: 15 mm, 25 mm or 37.5 mm. Sub‐Tenon's injections were performed with a curved 25‐mm sub‐Tenon anaesthesia cannula. The injection technique, ocular akinesia and analgesia scoring system, and supplementary injection protocols were standardised. After initial injections of local anaesthetic via the sub‐Tenon's cannula or with 37.5 mm, 25 mm and 15 mm needles, supplementation was required in one (2%), 13 (26%), 22 (44%) and 32 (64%) of patients, respectively; the total number of supplementary injections required were 1, 16, 35 and 47, respectively. It is concluded that the efficacy of peribulbar anaesthesia depends upon the proximity of the deposition of local anaesthetic solution either to the globe or orbital apex. These data justify the classification of peribulbar anaesthesia into: circum‐ocular (sub‐Tenon's, episcleral), peri‐ocular (anterior, superficial); peri‐conal (posterior, deep) and apical (ultra‐deep) for teaching purposes.
Integrated approaches to academic anaesthesia – the Cambridge experience
Authors: Menon D. K. , Wheeler D. W. , Wilkins I. A. , Phillips P. D. , Fletcher S. J. , Penfold N. W. , Smith H. L. , Gupta A. K. , Matta B. F. 
Published: July 2004

SummaryThere is mounting concern about the pressures experienced by University Departments of Anaesthesia, which, if lost, could threaten undergraduate peri‐operative medicine teaching, development of critical appraisal skills among anaesthetists, and the future of coherent research programs. We have addressed these problems by establishing a foundation course in scientific methods and research techniques (the Cambridge SMART Course), complemented by competitive, fully funded, 12‐month academic trainee attachments. Research conducted during academic attachments has been published and used to underpin substantive grant applications allowing work towards higher degrees. Following the attachment, a flexible scheme ensures safe reintroduction to clinical training. Research at consultant level is facilitated by encouraging applications for Clinician Scientist Fellowships, and by ensuring that the University Department champions, legitimises and validates the allocation of research time within the new consultant contract. We believe that these are important steps in safeguarding research and teaching in anaesthesia, critical care and peri‐operative medicine.