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Knowledge of global patterns of biodiversity, ranging from intraspecific genetic diversity (GD) to taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity, is essential for identifying and conserving the processes that shape the distribution of life. Yet, global patterns of GD and its drivers remain elusive. Here we assess existing biodiversity theories to explain and predict the global distribution of GD in terrestrial mammal assemblages. We find a strong positive covariation between GD and interspecific diversity, with evolutionary time, reflected in phylogenetic diversity, being the best predictor of GD. Moreover, we reveal the negative effect of past rapid climate change and the positive effect of inter-annual precipitation variability in shaping GD. Our models, explaining almost half of the variation in GD globally, uncover the importance of deep evolutionary history and past climate stability in accumulating and maintaining intraspecific diversity, and constitute a crucial step towards reducing the Wallacean shortfall for an important dimension of biodiversity., The drivers of genetic diversity (GD) are poorly understood at the global scale. Here the authors show, for terrestrial mammals, that within-species GD covaries with phylogenetic diversity and is higher in locations with more stable past climates. They also interpolate GD for data-poor locations such as the tropics.

Traditional regression techniques such as ordinary least squares (OLS) are often unable to accurately model spatially varying data and may ignore or hide local variations in model coefficients. A relatively new technique, geographically weighted regression (GWR) has been shown to greatly improve model performance compared to OLS in terms of higher R2 and lower corrected Akaike information criterion (AICC). GWR models have the potential to improve reliabilities of the identified relationships by reducing spatial autocorrelations and by accounting for local variations and spatial non-stationarity between dependent and independent variables. In this study, GWR was used to examine the relationship between land cover, rainfall and surface water habitat in 149 sub-catchments in a predominately agricultural region covering 2.6 million ha in southeast Australia. The application of the GWR models revealed that the relationships between land cover, rainfall and surface water habitat display significant spatial non-stationarity. GWR showed improvements over analogous OLS models in terms of higher R2 and lower AICC. The increased explanatory power of GWR was confirmed by the results of an approximate likelihood ratio test, which showed statistically significant improvements over analogous OLS models. The models suggest that the amount of surface water area in the landscape is related to anthropogenic drainage practices enhancing runoff to facilitate intensive agriculture and increased plantation forestry. However, with some key variables not present in our analysis, the strength of this relationship could not be qualified. GWR techniques have the potential to serve as a useful tool for environmental research and management across a broad range of scales for the investigation of spatially varying relationships.

How apt that I received Stories of Mentoring: Theory and Praxis in January of 2009, a time now marked as National Mentoring Month. Rhetoric and composition as a discipline has long prided itself on...

Wayne Booth died October 10, 2005. I remember the pang at seeing the announcement. As The New York Times reported, he was “one of the pre-eminent literary critics of the second half of the 20th cen...

(2000). The arrival of rhetoric in the twenty‐first century: The 1999 survey of doctoral programs in rhetoric. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 233-242.

The biology of three landlocked and a riverine population of Galaxias maculatus were examined in western Victoria, Australia. All systems supported reproducing populations of these fish, including Lake Corangamite which had salinities that on occasion reached 82. Spawning sites in Lake Corangamite were located in adjacent tributaries and not in the main lake as was the case for other populations. The smallest fish were found in the fresh water Lake Purrumbete and the largest in the hypersaline Lake Corangamite. The size at which 50% of the population attained sexual maturity varied across sites, with fish maturing at a smaller size in Lake Purrumbete, followed by the Merri River, Lake Bullen Merri and Lake Corangamite. Condition was higher in the freshwater Lake Purrumbete and there was no relationship between condition and temperature, conductivity, turbidity and pH; but there was a positive relationship between condition and dissolved oxygen. Length frequency analysis suggested that the majority of fishes live for a year.

(1994). Doctoral programs in rhetoric and composition: A catalog of the profession. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 240-389.

In his instructive encyclopaedia article on ‘Monad and Monadology’, Leroy Loemker1 characterised a ‘monad’ as “a simple, irreducible, self-determining entity whose activity is the source of all composite beings”. “A monadology [he goes on] is a metaphysical system that interprets the world as a harmonious unity encompassing a plurality of such self-determining simple entities.” Loemker, of course, allows Leibniz a special place in the history of monadology. But part of the interest of his entry is the way in which he sketches its earlier history. He suggests, for instance, that three conceptions have been particularly operative: the Christian Platonist tradition of the soul as a simple substance possessing self-certainty in immediate unity, especially mediated by Augustine; the Neo-Platonic-Stoic conception of the one that is essentially represented in each of its parts; and a spiritualised atomism ultimately derived from this Neo-Platonic-Stoic conception.

1. Science and British philosophy: Boyle and Newton John Rogers, University of Keele 2. Innate idea philosophy: Lord Herbert and the Cambridge Platonists Sarah Hutton, University of Hertfordshire 3. Locke:knowledge and its limits Ian Tipton, University College of Swansea 4. Locke: political theory Ian Harris, Jesus College, Cambridge 5. Berkeley David Berman, University of Dublin 6. Hume: knowledge and belief Anne Jacobson, Rutgers University 7. Hume: moral and political philosophy Rosalind Hursthouse, The Open University 8. British moralists of the 18th century: Shaftesbury, Butler and Price David McNaughton, University of Keele 9. The French enlightenment: nature and science, deism and materialism Peter Jimack, University of Stirling 10. The French enlightenment: moral and political thought Peter Jimack, 11. The Scottish enlightenment M.A. Stewart, Lancaster University 12. The Aufklarung (to include Moses Mendelssohn) Manfred Kuehn, Purdue University 13. Vico A. Perez-Ramos, University of Murcia 14. The beginnings of the romantic reaction: Rousseau and Burke Ian Harris, Jesus College, Cambridge

This study examines the reading apprehension, the writing performance, and the perceived job reading requirements of 91 students enrolled in an upper-division business writing course at the University of Arizona. To measure reading apprehension, the investigators used the Estes Scale (1971 ), and a modification of the frequently used writing apprehension measure developed by Daly and Miller (1975). The investigators used course grades to measure writing performance, and they used a single question to measure students perceptions of reading requirements in their future jobs. Results indicated that students with higher course grades exhibited lower levels of reading apprehension. Further, those students also anticipated higher reatlitig requirements in their future jobs. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.

For the 200 years from the mid-9th century B.C., a renascent state of Assyria embarked on a phase of imperialistic expansion without precedent in the history of Western Asia.' In the eastern aspect of this expansion, Assyrian armies repeatedly thrust into the central and northern Zagros mountains to establish and consolidate a system of tributary vassal states and provinces among the indigenous highland populations. Some of these, such as Allabria, Karalla, Ellipi, and Mannea, were already organized into small to moderately large kingdoms. Others, particularly the Medes, lacked an overarching political authority and were distributed throughout numerous small polities, probably best characterized as chiefdoms.2 The demise of the Assyrian state was even more spectacular than its rise. Concurrent with at least the later stages of the Neo-Assyrian provincial occupation of the central Zagros in the late 7th century B.C., a Median chiefdom centered on Ecbatana (Hamadan) moved to political unification with other Median polities, raised an organized army, and assumed the role of a predatory state.3 Within a few short years, Assyria was crushed under