Publication Bias in Animal Welfare Scientific Literature

Animal welfare scientific literature has accumulated rapidly in recent years, but bias may exist which influences understanding of progress in the field. We conducted a survey of articles related to animal welfare or well being from an electronic database. From 8,541 articles on this topic, we randomly selected 115 articles for detailed review in four funding categories: government; charity and/or scientific association; industry; and educational organization. Ninety articles were evaluated after unsuitable articles were rejected. The welfare states of animals in new treatments, conventional treatments or control groups with no treatment were classified as high, medium or low according to one or more. More articles were published in which the welfare of animals in new treatments was better than that of animals in the conventional or no treatment groups, demonstrating a positive result bias. Failure to publish studies with negative or inconclusive results may lead to other scientists unnecessarily repeating the research. The authors’ assessments of the welfare state of the groups were similarly rated high, medium or low, and it was found that new treatments were rated lower if the research was funded by industry, and higher when funded by charities, with government funding agencies intermediate. These differences were not evident in the Five Freedoms assessment, demonstrating an authors’ assessment bias that appeared to support the funding agencies’ interests. North American funded publications rated the welfare of animals in New treatments higher and those in a Conventional or No Treatment lower, compared with European-funded publications. It is concluded that preliminary evidence was provided of several forms of publication bias in animal welfare science.     

Integrating climate change adaptation into Dutch local policies and the role of contextual factors

Moving towards a more sustainable adaptation process requires closer integration of policies related to the environment. An important actor in this is the local government. This paper examines to what extend adaptation is currently being integrated into Dutch local policies, and what the role is of a municipality's size, risk and experience in the encountered manifestations of adaptation. First, it was determined that adaptations taking place only anticipate currently perceivable weather extremes – mostly increasing precipitation. Second, it was determined that the realisation of further adaptations is hindered by a strongly sectoral divided reality. Adaptation is now heavily dominated by the water department, while spatial planning and the environment are only limitedly involved. Finally, it was observed that the contextual factor size proved to most important for horizontal policy integration, whereas the contextual factor extreme-weather experience was the most definite for the realisation of adaptations. We conclude that a more sustainable adaptation should first tackle the sectoral divides which requires administrative efforts, for example, professional training. These would preferably be initiated from a vertical direction.     

Export efficiency of large projects: The case of aluminium smelters

We draw attention to a number of key factors in the evaluation of major projects, such as smelters, which are highly capital- and energy-intensive as well as export-orientated. The practice of justifying such projects by upvaluing foreign exchange is considered, as is the cost of distortion. Export efficiency is introduced as the key criterion: the efficiency of some recent smelter proposals in Oceania was between 36 and 50 cents in the dollar. A correct power price is essential: hydropower (in contrast with hydroenergy) should be priced as a depletable resource.     

Attitudes towards sex selection in the Western world

It appears that in most Western countries, son preference is somewhat stronger than daughter preference. However, when one considers the preference of women it looks as though the opposite pattern is emerging. There is a considerable social acceptance of ‘light’ methods of sex selection (such as diets), even though these methods are not proven to be effective. The inclination to use sperm separation methods appears to be greater in the United States than in some European countries. There are indications that a preference for boys or for girls is associated with attitudes towards technology, child-rearing style and the stereotyping of boys or girls. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development of a digital terrain model for the geomorphological engineering of the ‘rolling’ foredune of Terschelling,the Netherlands

The foredunes form an important element of the line of defence which protects the low-lying parts of the Netherlands from the sea. The foredune of the eastern part of the Wadden island of Terschelling has been managed as a ‘rolling’ foredune to maximize the amount of sand available in times of emergency. Following a decision of the Dutch Government to maintain the coastline of 1990, this foredune will now be stabilized. A plan is made to reshape the morphology of the foredune according to a geomorphological design. A simulation model was developed to produce a Digital Terrain Model with the required geometrical information. The transformation which is on the macro-level scale can be achieved within the envisaged medium-scale planning period of five years only by applying earth-moving machinery, placing fences or planting sand-trapping vegetation.     

On temperature and water limitation of net ecosystem productivity: Implementation in the C-Fix model

Monitoring, understanding and modelling carbon emission and fixation fluxes are key actions to guide climate change stakeholders in the application of mitigation strategies. In this study, we use the remote sensing model C-Fix at the local stand scale to improve the integration of algorithms for water and temperature limitation. These new algorithms are applied to estimate net ecosystem productivity in a fully water limited mode.     

Alloimmune responses between Acropora hemprichi conspecifics: nontransitive patterns of overgrowth and delayed cytotoxicity

Allogeneic interactions between Acropora hemprichi (Ehrenberg) colonies were followed in situ up to 18 mo between 1990 and 1992 in Eilat, Red Sea. We established all 21 possible branch pair combinations among seven large colonies in three to eight replicates each (n=92 pairs), in addition in 14 pairs of grafts within-colonies. All isografts resulted in fusion. Allogeneic interactions revealed a variety of effector mechanisms which involved the appearance of dark blue-purple color in the tissues of interacting branch tips (<1 cm), unilateral overgrowths (1.0 to 1.5 mm mo^-1 for 1 to 8 mo), rejections, healings, continuous overgrowths, reversals, repeated rejections and more. Direction of overgrowth was usually specific to a given combination of colonies. A hierarchial network of overgrowths was obtained by analyzing overgrowth directions of all pairwise combinations, which included 30 transitive and five nontransitive three-way combinations. These outcomes, similarly to responses of allogeneic encounters recorded from other coral species, show that colonies can respond selectively to different types of allogeneic challenges. It is suggested that corals may have the capacity to distinguish self from nonself by recognizing nonself attributes presented on conspecifics.