PERCEPTIONS OF INTERIOR SPACES

A transactional approach was used to examine responses to dining and living rooms. In experiment 1, 19 subjects evaluated a sample of 37 rooms on nine scales and ranked ordered the scales as to difficulty of application. A factor analysis yielded three room categories: Decorative; Stylish; and Familiar. Subjects found it easier to make affective rather than cognitive judgments. Experiment 2 examined the effects of relative involvement on responses to the three categories of rooms. Stimulus materials included two matched sets (A and B) of 12 rooms (four from each category) and a detail from each (e.g. a lamp). Twenty-four male and 24 female subjects viewed the 12 rooms (set A or set B) and rated each one on six 7-point scales, wrote brief imaginative accounts of an episode which might take place in each room, and performed a recognition task for details of the rooms. Subjects did the scale ratings either before or after writing the narrative accounts, and wrote each narrative either from first or third person perspectives in a within-subjects design. The desire to live in a room was best predicted by perceived beauty and personal involvement. Involvement was fostered by rating the rooms before writing the stories and by a first person perspective. Familiar rooms were preferred most, while Decorative rooms were seen as most informative about the person.     

Problems in Extinction Model Selection and Parameter Estimation

It is a vexing problem to achieve a consensus about the proper scientific way to assess population viability for habitat conservation plans. Rather than a hypothesis-testing approach, here it is proposed to select population models, estimate extinction parameters, and assess prediction uncertainty using a pragmatic, empirical Bayesian approach. The simplest usable models include the effects of population growth, r; carrying capacity, K; Allee threshold, N(A); and environmental stochasticity, v(r). Analytic predictions of expected extinction times are available for such models. Models that are more complex can be elaborated from this basis. Selection from a hierarchy of nesting population models can often be done through the evaluation of parameters. The estimation of the most important extinction parameters can be undertaken in a variety of ways. Time series can be analyzed to estimate r(d), v(r), rho, and K. Habitat models and individualistic population models may help estimate N(A) and K and demographic stochasticity. Fine-scale biogeography and climatological data may be useful in the estimation of a variety of parameters. Because it takes many years to estimate extinction parameters accurately for a given population of interest, the most efficient estimation procedures are desirable. I propose the use of prior information from an (as yet nonexistent) population biology database. The accumulation of local information through monitoring will improve our estimates allowing adaptive management. Uncertainty in the estimates will always remain, but it may be quantified by the posterior distributions. A crude example is discussed using treefrog population data. Although the motivations, beliefs, and biases of competing stakeholders will differ, a habitat conservation plan could accommodate this variation in the prior distributions. Field experience from monitoring will increasingly clear up any discrepancies between the opposing beliefs and the real ecosystem. As the world is an uncertain place and because there is no universal scientific method, there will always be controversy and surprises. The best we can do is (1) agree about our prior information, (2) agree about the strategy of model selection and parameter estimation, and (3) agree about our strategy for adaptive management. Perhaps the greatest impediment to such prior agreements for HCPs is the likely paranoia inspired by the use of unfamiliar statistical methodology. We need to train students of ecology in a more flexible and deeper understanding of statistics and philosophy of science.     

Endemism and Regional Color and Genetic Differences in Five Putatively Cosmopolitan Reef Fishes

Abstract:  Endemism is thought to be relatively rare in marine systems due to the lack of allopatric barriers and the potential for long-distance colonization via pelagic larval dispersal. Although many species of coral reef fishes exhibit regionally restricted color variants that are suggestive of regional endemism, such variation is typically ascribed to intraspecific variation. We examined the genetic structure in 5 putatively monospecific fishes from the Indo-West Pacific ( Amphiprion melanopus , Chrysiptera talboti , and Pomacentrus moluccensis [Pomacentridae] and Cirrhilabrus punctatus , and Labroides dimidiatus [Labridae]) that express regional color variation unique to this area. Mitochondrial-control-region sequence analysis showed shallow to deep genetic divergence in all 5 species (sequence divergence 2–17%), with clades concordant with regional color variation. These results were partially supported by nuclear RAG2 data. An analysis of molecular variation (AMOVA) mirrored the phylogenetic results; Φ_ST values ranged from 0.91 to 0.7, indicating high levels of geographic partitioning of genetic variation. Concordance of genetics and phenotype demonstrate the genetic uniqueness of southwestern Pacific color variants, indicating that these populations are at a minimum distinct evolutionarily significant units and perhaps distinct regionally endemic species. Our results indicate that the alpha biodiversity of the southwestern Pacific is likely underestimated even in well-studied groups, such as reef fishes, and that regional endemism may be more common in tropical marine systems than previously thought.     

Encouraging Natural Gas Exploration in Developing Countries

Significant distinctions that exist between crude oil and natural gas compel that separate terms for gas be included in petroleum agreements. Fiscal terms, production shares and cost recovery are, like oil, important economic considerations in gas agreements. However, unlike oil agreements, other economic terms will also need to receive attention because gas agreements need to give explicit recognition to the process for commercializing the gas discovery.