Search

Urban evolutionary ecology is inherently interdisciplinary. Moreover, it is a field with global significance. However, bringing researchers and resources together across fields and countries is challenging. Therefore, an online collaborative research hub, where common methods and best practices are shared among scientists from diverse geographic, ethnic, and career backgrounds would make research focused on urban evolutionary ecology more inclusive. Here, we describe a freely available online research hub for toolkits that facilitate global research in urban evolutionary ecology. We provide rationales and descriptions of toolkits for: (1) decolonizing urban evolutionary ecology; (2) identifying and fostering international collaborative partnerships; (3) common methods and freely‐available datasets for trait mapping across cities; (4) common methods and freely‐available datasets for cross‐city evolutionary ecology experiments; and (5) best practices and freely available resources for public outreach and communication of research findings in urban evolutionary ecology. We outline how the toolkits can be accessed, archived, and modified over time in order to sustain long‐term global research that will advance our understanding of urban evolutionary ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of the orb web was associated with a major radiation in spider diversity. Orb webs evolved for prey capture, and they also play important roles in courtship and mating. However, the construction and use of orb webs has associated costs, and the modification and loss of orb webs have evolved multiple times. While variation between species is evident, such as reductions or loss of the orb web for foraging, this kind of variation is rarely detailed within species. Here, I describe laboratory observations of foraging and mating without an orb web in a typical orb-weaving spider, the Australian garden orb weaver (Hortophora biapicata). The behavioural range observed here shows the natural variation in these traits, on which selection might act to drive the reduction or loss of orb webs. Further investigation of these rare and unusual behaviours can help us understand the function and origin of important traits associated with the orb web, including both its construction and use, and how these traits can change over evolutionary time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ovarian cancer is the most common cause of mortality of tumors from gynecologic origin and is often diagnosed after patients have already progressed to advanced disease stage. The current standard of care for treatment of ovarian cancer includes cytoreductive surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Unfortunately, many patients will recur and ultimately die from their disease. Targeted therapies have been evaluated in ovarian cancer as a method to overcome resistant disease. Angiogenesis inhibitors have shown success in many tumor types and have also demonstrated promise in trials involving patients with ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors may be potentially active agents in patients with BRCA-associated ovarian cancer. Trials that have evaluated combinations of targeted agents have often revealed untoward toxicities, thus tempering enthusiasm for this approach.

There is growing recognition that science is not conducted in a vacuum and that advances in the biosciences have ethical and social implications for the wider community. An exercise is described in which undergraduate students work in teams to produce short videos about the science and ethical dimensions of current developments in biomedicine. This activity has resulted in the generation of a large number of introductory films on a range of contemporary issues in medically related biology. The best videos are made freely available on the internet for use by any interested party. In this way, the students are not only learning about the issues for themselves, but are also producing valuable resources for enhancing public understanding of the science and ethics relating to newsworthy innovations. This task could be readily adapted for use with a broader range of topics with students in both secondary and tertiary education.

The ability to design appropriate experiments in order to interrogate a research question is an important skill for any scientist. The present article describes an interactive lecture-based activity centred around a comparison of two contrasting approaches to investigation of the question "Can you smell fear?" A poorly designed experiment (a video clip from the TV series "Brainiac science abuse") is considered alongside the methods used in a peer-reviewed paper examining the same issue. The exercise is applicable both for students in their later years of secondary education and during the first year of a university-level bioscience course. (Contains 1 box.)

A survey has been carried out to investigate the provision of ethics teaching to students following Bioscience programmes at UK Universities. We report that 69% of undergraduate programmes described by respondents included an ethical component, although it may not be appropriate to extrapolate this value nationally. When ethics is taught, it is a little more likely to appear in the second year of a degree than in the third year, but with only limited use being made of the first year. In the vast majority of cases this teaching is carried out by bioscience staff from within the institution, but with the frequent involvement of staff from other Departments (e.g. Philosophy) and/or invited experts from outside the University. The majority of bioscience respondents were aware of the requirements for ethics in subject benchmark statements. A certain level of apprehension about teaching ethics was noted. Requests were made for additional teaching resources, including case studies, audio-visual material and briefing documents on the key issues, along with their collation via a bespoke website. (Contains 5 tables.)

There is growing awareness of the need to equip students to think through the ethical implications of developments in biology. We describe an exercise in which students work in teams to produce websites about current controversial issues within the subject. Participants report a significant improvement in their knowledge of bioethics and acquisition of new generic skills. Additionally, we note not only a broadening of their consciousness about such issues, but also an increase in their use of appropriate scientific terminology. This web-authoring activity could readily be adapted for use with students in a broader range of disciplines at both tertiary and secondary level. (Contains 4 tables and 1 box.)

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8306.2006.00711.x Byline: Cort J. Willmott (*) Author Affiliation: (*)Department of Geography, University of Delaware Article note: Correspondence: Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, e-mail: willmott@udel.edu.

This study is concerned with properties of freely propagating barotropic Rossby waves in a circular polar cap, a prototype model for the Arctic Ocean. The linearised shallow-water equations are used to derive an amplitude equation for the waves in which full spherical geometry is retained. Almost by definition, polar basin dynamics are confined to regions of limited latitudinal extent and this provides a natural small scale which can underpin a rational asymptotic analysis of the amplitude equation. The coefficients of this equation depend on the topography of the basin and, as a simple model of the Arctic basin, we assume that the basin interior is characterised by a constant depth, surrounded by a continental shelf-slope the depth of which has algebraic dependence on co-latitude. Isobaths are therefore a family of concentric circles with centre at the pole. On the shelf and slope regions the leading order amplitude equation is of straightforward Euler type. Asymptotic values of the wave frequencies are derived and these are compared to values computed directly from the full amplitude equation. It is shown that the analytic results are in very good accord with the numerical predictions. Further simulations show that the properties of the waves are not particularly sensitive to the precise details of the underlying topography; this is reassuring as it is difficult to faithfully represent the shelf topography using simple mathematical functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]