A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Animal Experiments with Guidelines for Reporting

To maximize the findings of animal experiments to inform likely health effects in humans, a thorough review and evaluation of the animal evidence is required. Systematic reviews and, where appropriate, meta-analyses have great potential in facilitating such an evaluation, making efficient use of the animal evidence while minimizing possible sources of bias. The extent to which systematic review and meta-analysis methods have been applied to evaluate animal experiments to inform human health is unknown. Using systematic review methods, we examine the extent and quality of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of in vivo animal experiments carried out to inform human health. We identified 103 articles meeting the inclusion criteria: 57 reported a systematic review, 29 a systematic review and a meta-analysis, and 17 reported a meta-analysis only. The use of these methods to evaluate animal evidence has increased over time. Although the reporting of systematic reviews is of adequate quality, the reporting of meta-analyses is poor. The inadequate reporting of meta-analyses observed here leads to questions on whether the most appropriate methods were used to maximize the use of the animal evidence to inform policy or decision-making. We recommend that guidelines proposed here be used to help improve the reporting of systematic reviews and meta-analyses of animal experiments. Further consideration of the use and methodological quality and reporting of such studies is needed.     

Between Guilt and Obligation: Debating the Responsibility for Climate Change and Climate Politics in the Media

ABSTRACT

The “common but differentiated responsibility” of developed and developing countries to mitigate climate change is a core principle of international climate politics—but there is disagreement about what this “differentiated responsibility” amounts to. We investigate how newspapers in developed countries (Australia, Germany, United States) and emerging economies (Brazil, India) covered this debate during the UN climate summits in 2004, 2009, and 2014. Newspapers in both types of countries attributed more responsibility to developed than to developing countries. In line with social identity theory, however, media in developed countries attributed less causal responsibility (blame) to other developed countries than media in emerging economies. The latter countries’ media, in turn, attributed less responsibility to other developing countries than media in developed countries. At the same time, in line with the “differentiated responsibility”, media in developed countries attributed more responsibility to their own countries than media in emerging economies.     

Land Community Participation: A New “Public” Participation Model

This essay presents a new “public” participation model that responds to contemporary participation problems. The author extends criticism of a false nature/culture dualism and responds to calls for pragmatic ways to expand participation to an expressive land community. The essay draws on existing scholarship that treats a range of direct to indirect forms of participation in environmental decision-making to argue for and explicate the land community participation model (LCP). The model features participation, power, and chronemics along three distinct and intersecting continua that bind and constitute participatory communication in environmental decision-making. Combining professional field experiences with rhetorical criticism, the author pilots the LCP model in a wilderness dispute resolution case study and suggests additional ways for using LCP as an interpretive guide and design tool in pursuit of environmental democracy.     

Media Representations of Water Issues as Health Risks

ABSTRACT

Water is a critical natural resource for sustaining human life. Media representations are a factor in the formation of public risk perceptions and could influence water conservation and health promotion behaviors. The objective of this research is to identify how newspaper media in four Western U.S. states frame the public health risks associated with water resources. Researchers conducted a content analysis of 326 newspaper articles from eight major newspapers focusing on water resource issues published during a three-year period between January 2012 and December 2014. Results indicate that health risks associated with water are seldom mentioned, and that the risks most frequently covered with regard to water resources are those with direct and immediate impacts to area residents. Findings suggest that media coverage may not be consistent with the nature of health impacts associated with water, which often are long-term.     

Internet Memes,Media Frames,and the Conflicting Logics of Climate Change Discourse

ABSTRACT

Media frames have been applied to news information for decades to influence the manner in which news is both delivered and interpreted. However, media frames have tended to focus on traditional news media channels, but the emergence of new media platforms now necessitates a recalibration of how media framing is understood in relation to media and communication studies. With a focus on the issue of climate change, this study explores how framing is employed by the phenomenon of Internet memes in the new media landscape. Specifically, memes presented demonstrate the representation of five common media frames from the perspectives of both the “convinced” and “skeptical” logics. It is argued that through the use of common meme templates combined with the typical humorous or ironic message they convey, Internet memes represent a potentially powerful form of socio-political participation in the online community.     

National,regional and local attitudes towards climate change: identifying appropriate target audiences for communications

A government-funded scheme, the UK Climate Change Communications Initiative (UKCCCI), has provided money for organisations to deliver projects that attempt to impact positively on people's attitudes towards climate change. This devolution of communications is a relatively novel approach after previous centralised campaigns. This paper considers what size of target audience is most appropriate for attitude change initiatives. It compares data from a regional UKCCCI project aimed at residents of two counties with a nationally representative dataset. Regional data are also analysed to see if there are differences in attitudes within the two-counties target audience. The study suggests that attitude change interventions must strike a balance between personalisation of information and the higher cost of targeting smaller groups with more specific material.     

When males whistle at females: complex FM acoustic signals in cockroaches

Male cockroaches of the species Elliptorhina chopardi expel air through a pair of modified abdominal spiracles during courtship. This air expulsion simultaneously produces air and substrate-borne vibrations. We described and compared in details these two types of vibrations. Our analysis of the air-borne signals shows that males can produce three categories of signals with distinct temporal and frequency parameters. “Pure whistles” consist of two independent harmonic series fast frequency modulated with independent harmonics that can cross each other. “Noisy whistles” also possess two independent voices but include a noisy broad-band frequency part in the middle. Hiss sounds are more noise-like, being made of a broad-band frequency spectrum. All three call types are unusually high in dominant frequency (>5 kHz) for cockroaches. The substrate-borne signals are categorised similarly. Some harmonics of the substrate-borne signals were filtered out, however, making the acoustic energy centered on fewer frequency bands. Our analysis shows that cockroach signals are complex, with fast frequency modulations and two distinct voices. These results also readdress the question of what system could potentially receive and decode the information contained within such complex sounds.Electronic supplementary material  Supplementary material is available for this article at and is accessible for authorized users.     

天津水质自动监测通讯系统─—电源易损及信息传输

本文对引进的天津水质自动监测系统在运行期间，通讯系统出现的故障作了全面的剖析研究，并提出了解决这些问题的方法。     

The honey bee shaking signal: function and design of a modulatory communication signal

This study explores the meaning and functional design of a modulatory communication signal, the honey bee shaking signal, by addressing five questions: (I) who shakes, (II) when do they shake, (III) where do they shake, (IV) how do receivers respond to shaking, and (V) what conditions trigger shaking. Several results confirm the work of Schneider (1987) and Schneider et al. (1986a): (I) most shakers were foragers (at least 83%); (II) shaking exhibited a consistent temporal pattern with bees producing the most signals in the morning (0810–1150 hours) just prior to a peak in waggle dancing activity; and (IV) bees moved faster (by 75%) after receiving a shaking signal. However, this study differs from previous work by providing a long-term, temporal, spatial, and vector analysis of individual shaker behavior. (III) Bees producing shaking signals walked and delivered signals in all areas of the hive, but produced the most shaking signals directly above the waggle dance floor. (IV) Bees responded to the signal by changing their direction of movement. Prior to receiving a signal, bees selected from the waggle dance floor moved, on average, towards the hive exit. After receiving a signal, some bees continued moving towards the exit but others moved directly away from the exit. During equivalent observation periods, non-shaken bees exhibited a strong tendency to move towards the hive exit. (V) Renewed foraging activity after food dearth triggered shaking signals, and, the level of shaking is positively correlated with the duration of food dearth. However, shaking signal levels also increased in the morning before foraging had begun and in the late afternoon after foraging had ceased. This spontaneous afternoon peak has not previously been reported. The shaking signal consequently appears to convey the general message “reallocate labor to different activities” with receiver context specifying a more precise meaning. In the context of foraging, the shaking signal appears to activate (and perhaps deactivate) colony foraging preparations. The generally weak response elicited by modulatory signals such as the shaking signal may result from a high receiver response threshold which allows the receiver to integrate multiple sources of information and which thereby increases the probability that receiver actions will be appropriate to colony needs. Received: 21 March 1997 / Accepted after revision: 30 August 1997     

Public acceptability towards environmental policy measures: Value-matching appeals

People’s acceptability of environmental policy measures is vital for a successful implementation. Identifying how information concerning radical policy measures can be improved may increase support and generate more positive attitudes towards the policy. The effect of tailored information on acceptability towards implementing a proposed congestion charge was investigated by matching ecocentric arguments to biospherically value-oriented participants, and anthropocentric arguments to those who endorsed egoistic values. 627 respondents living in two small Swedish cities participated via a web-based survey. The results show that the single arguments (anthropocentric or ecocentric appeals) were evaluated more favourably than the combination of arguments (including both anthropocentric and ecocentric appeals). Strong biospheric and strong egoistic values were associated with positive and negative evaluations of the policy proposal, respectively. Finally, while respondents who endorsed egoistic values tended to be more positive towards the proposal after reading anthropocentric arguments (value match) than after reading pro-environmental arguments (value mismatch), the opposite effect was observed for respondents who did not endorse egoistic values. Our results suggest that tailoring information with regard to people’s values would be effective in promoting positive attitudes towards important policy measures.