Testing silicone digit extensions as a way to suppress natural sensation to evaluate supplementary tactile feedback.

Dexterous use of the hands depends critically on sensory feedback, so it is generally agreed that functional supplementary feedback would greatly improve the use of hand prostheses. Much research still focuses on improving non-invasive feedback that could potentially become available to all prosthesis users. However, few studies on supplementary tactile feedback for hand prostheses demonstrated a functional benefit. We suggest that confounding factors impede accurate assessment of feedback, e.g., testing non-amputee participants that inevitably focus intently on learning EMG control, the EMG's susceptibility to noise and delays, and the limited dexterity of hand prostheses. In an attempt to assess the effect of feedback free from these constraints, we used silicone digit extensions to suppress natural tactile feedback from the fingertips and thus used the tactile feedback-deprived human hand as an approximation of an ideal feed-forward tool. Our non-amputee participants wore the extensions and performed a simple pick-and-lift task with known weight, followed by a more difficult pick-and-lift task with changing weight. They then repeated these tasks with one of three kinds of audio feedback. The tests were repeated over three days. We also conducted a similar experiment on a person with severe sensory neuropathy to test the feedback without the extensions. Furthermore, we used a questionnaire based on the NASA Task Load Index to gauge the subjective experience. Unexpectedly, we did not find any meaningful differences between the feedback groups, neither in the objective nor the subjective measurements. It is possible that the digit extensions did not fully suppress sensation, but since the participant with impaired sensation also did not improve with the supplementary feedback, we conclude that the feedback failed to provide relevant grasping information in our experiments. The study highlights the complex interaction between task, feedback variable, feedback delivery, and control, which seemingly rendered even rich, high-bandwidth acoustic feedback redundant, despite substantial sensory impairment.

Seasonal variability of resources: The unexplored adversary of biogas use in rural Ethiopia.

Biogas digester programmes have been rolled out across many countries in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade with varying levels of success. In Ethiopia, reported success rates have been low, despite high levels of interaction between non-governmental organisations and various levels of government, plus the establishment of practical eligibility criteria. In Halaba, Ethiopia, we investigated physical and social factors affecting feedstock and water availability using a face-to-face questionnaire-based survey (n = 112) in four kebeles (local administration areas). We found that practices of fuel use and water collection were markedly different between seasons. Fuel use was almost entirely dependent on season, with wood being burned in the wet season and crop residues and cow dung being used instead in the dry season. A matched pair t-test found a significant difference between seasons in terms of water collection times (p = 7.4 × 10-16), with households spending more time and money obtaining clean drinking water in the dry season. Results indicate that seasonal differences in resource availability may reduce the proportion of households that meet the physical characteristics for maintaining a biogas digester by approximately 62% from wet season to dry season. Conversely, the greatest benefits of digester use would be gained in the dry season, when dung could be returned to the soil as a nutrient-rich bioslurry, instead of being combusted as a dirty and inefficient fuel. Seasonality is rarely considered in feasibility studies, so we recommend that these factors should be built into future analyses.

Who knows best? Understanding the use of research-based knowledge in conservation conflicts.

The way in which research-based knowledge is used, interpreted and communicated by different actors can influence the dynamics of conservation conflicts. The conflict that occurs between grouse shooting interests and the conservation of birds of prey in Scotland is notoriously complex, involving multiple actors at multiple levels, and shaped by the values and world views of these actors. This paper explores how research-based knowledge is used in the debate by six key organisations, and looks to understand the drivers that may influence knowledge use and interpretation in this, and other, cases of conservation conflict. Research was used to both legitimise and reinforce certain world views, and to support associated political actions that would cause these to become reality. Actors offered divergent interpretations of the same piece of research, emphasising different findings and outcomes. Research-based knowledge was thus employed by actors to support or counter the 'status quo', and challenge other claims that clashed with their own values. Although the intention of such knowledge use is unclear, the selective reconstruction of research by actors could stem from, and reiterate, divergent value systems. This may pose significant challenges to conflict mitigation efforts; whilst some may look to research-based knowledge as the bringer of truth, its interpretation by different actors may exacerbate existing rifts between stakeholders; promoting polarisation of views. Mitigation strategies should be sensitive to this, and aim to improve the inclusiveness and transparency of the knowledge transfer process.

Empowered communities or "cheap labour"? Engaging volunteers in the rationalised management of invasive alien species in Great Britain.

Volunteers are increasingly involved in the delivery of nature conservation policies, usually supported by a twofold rationale: volunteering can (a) enhance citizen participation in environmental governance and (b) ensure a workforce is in place to support conservation work in times of budget shortages. Here, we ask how these two rationales correspond to volunteers' own motivations to engage in a specific nature conservation activity, namely the control of invasive alien species (IAS). We use qualitative interviews with professional project managers, local group leaders, and volunteers to examine the interactions between policies aiming to rationalise the management of IAS and the motivations for and goals of volunteer engagement. Our findings suggest that although volunteering can lead to positive conservation outcomes, satisfying experiences and empowerment, the different interests do not always align in practice. We investigate the implications of strategies that aim to improve the efficiency of invasive species and volunteer management, and discuss organisational arrangements that reconcile different objectives.

Explaining people's perceptions of invasive alien species: A conceptual framework.

Human perceptions of nature and the environment are increasingly being recognised as important for environmental management and conservation. Understanding people's perceptions is crucial for understanding behaviour and developing effective management strategies to maintain, preserve and improve biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. As an interdisciplinary team, we produced a synthesis of the key factors that influence people's perceptions of invasive alien species, and ordered them in a conceptual framework. In a context of considerable complexity and variation across time and space, we identified six broad-scale dimensions: (1) attributes of the individual perceiving the invasive alien species; (2) characteristics of the invasive alien species itself; (3) effects of the invasion (including negative and positive impacts, i.e. benefits and costs); (4) socio-cultural context; (5) landscape context; and (6) institutional and policy context. A number of underlying and facilitating aspects for each of these six overarching dimensions are also identified and discussed. Synthesising and understanding the main factors that influence people's perceptions is useful to guide future research, to facilitate dialogue and negotiation between actors, and to aid management and policy formulation and governance of invasive alien species. This can help to circumvent and mitigate conflicts, support prioritisation plans, improve stakeholder engagement platforms, and implement control measures.

Shopping versus Nature? An Exploratory Study of Everyday Experiences.

Although a growing volume of empirical research shows that being in nature is important for human wellbeing, the definition of what constitutes an 'experience in nature,' and how this is different from other types of experiences, is very often left implied. In this paper we contrast everyday experiences involving nature with a category of everyday experience in which most people regularly partake. We present an exploratory study in which people (N = 357) were explicitly asked to describe a memory they had of an everyday 'experience which involved nature,' as well as an everyday 'experience which involved shopping.' The open-ended responses to these questions were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Nature experiences were generally found to be more positive than shopping experiences, and they were more likely to be rated as 'peaceful' and 'active' compared to shopping experiences. Follow-up analyses indicate a significant interaction between experience category (nature or shopping), and the relationship between connectedness to nature and the amount of pleasure associated with that experience: The more strongly connected to nature a respondent was, the larger the disparity between the pleasantness of the shopping experience and that of the experience in nature tended to be.

New Technological Interventions in Conservation Conflicts: Countering Emotions and Contested Knowledge.

New technologies have increasingly featured in environmental conservation conflicts. We examined the deployment of imaging devices such as sonar equipment and cameras to survey the Fal estuary in Cornwall, UK. Due to heavy use of these waters, there have been several disputes coalescing around protected marine features, including the estuary's rare maerl beds. A comparison of two cases, scallop dredging and docks development, showed technical instruments being deployed to produce information about the marine environment as evidence to inform decision-making. The use of imaging devices stimulated political action and was regarded as a move away from emotion-based decision-making towards desired objectivity. Simultaneously, however, the process of deploying these devices was challenged and there was recognition that the resultant information could be used to construct the estuary as a politically charged space. Thus, rather than clarifying and resolving contentious issues, technological interventions generated new baselines for knowledge contestation and amplified ongoing battles for credibility and authority.

Microscope and spectacle: on the complexities of using new visual technologies to communicate about wildlife conservation.

Wildlife conservation-related organisations increasingly employ new visual technologies in their science communication and public engagement efforts. Here, we examine the use of such technologies for wildlife conservation campaigns. We obtained empirical data from four UK-based organisations through semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Visual technologies were used to provide the knowledge and generate the emotional responses perceived by organisations as being necessary for motivating a sense of caring about wildlife. We term these two aspects 'microscope' and 'spectacle', metaphorical concepts denoting the duality through which these technologies speak to both the cognitive and the emotional. As conservation relies on public support, organisations have to be seen to deliver information that is not only sufficiently detailed and scientifically credible but also spectacular enough to capture public interest. Our investigation showed that balancing science and entertainment is a difficult undertaking for wildlife-related organisations as there are perceived risks of contriving experiences of nature and obscuring conservation aims.

Trophy hunters' willingness to pay for wildlife conservation and community benefits.

In the face of fundamental land-use changes, the potential for trophy hunting to contribute to conservation is increasingly recognized. Trophy hunting can, for example, provide economic incentives to protect wildlife populations and their habitat, but empirical studies on these relationships are few and tend to focus on the effects of benefit-sharing schemes from an ex post perspective. We investigated the conditions under which trophy hunting could facilitate wildlife conservation in Ethiopia ex ante. We used a choice experiment approach to survey international trophy hunters' (n = 224) preferences for trips to Ethiopia, here operationalized as trade-offs between different attributes of a hunting package, as expressed through choices with an associated willingness to pay. Participants expressed strong preferences and, consequently, were willing to pay substantial premiums for hunting trips to areas with abundant nontarget wildlife where domestic livestock was absent and for arrangements that offered benefit sharing with local communities. For example, within the range of percentages considered in the survey, respondents were on average willing to pay an additional $3900 for every 10 percentage points of the revenue being given to local communities. By contrast, respondents were less supportive of hunting revenue being retained by governmental bodies: Willingness to pay decreased by $1900 for every 10 percentage points of the revenue given to government. Hunters' preferences for such attributes of hunting trips differed depending on the degree to which they declared an interest in Ethiopian culture, nature conservation, or believed Ethiopia to be politically unstable. Overall, respondents thus expressly valued the outcomes of nature conservation activities--the presence of wildlife in hunting areas--and they were willing to pay for them. Our findings highlight the usefulness of insights from choice modeling for the design of wildlife management and conservation policies and suggest that trophy hunting in Ethiopia could generate substantially more financial support for conservation and be more in line with conservation objectives than is currently the case.

La Disposición de los Cazadores de Trofeos a Pagar por la Conservación de la Vida Silvestre y los Beneficios de la Comunidad Resumen De frente a los cambios fundamentales en el uso de suelo, el potencial de que la caza de trofeos contribuya a la conservación es reconocido cada vez más. Este tipo de caza puede, por ejemplo, proporcionar incentivos económicos para proteger poblaciones de vida silvestre y su hábitat, pero los estudios empíricos sobre estas relaciones son pocos y tienden a enfocarse en los efectos de los esquemas de compartir beneficios desde una perspectiva ex post. Investigamos las condiciones bajo las cuales la caza de trofeos podría facilitar la conservación de vida silvestre en Etiopía de forma ex ante. Usamos una estrategia de experimento de opciones para encuestar a cazadores internacionales de trofeos (n = 224) sobre sus preferencias por viajes a Etiopía, usados aquí como compensaciones entre los diferentes atributos de un paquete de caza, expresadas a través de opciones con una disposición asociada a pagar. Los participantes expresaron fuertes preferencias y, en consecuencia, estaban dispuestos a pagar primas sustanciales por viajes de caza a áreas con abundantes especies no cazadas y donde el ganado doméstico estaba ausente, y por arreglos que ofrecían compartir beneficios con la comunidad local. Por ejemplo, dentro del rango de porcentajes considerados en la encuesta, los respondientes estaban, en promedio, dispuestos a pagar unos $3900 adicionales por cada 10 puntos porcentuales de los ingresos que se otorgan a la comunidad local. En contraste, los respondientes no apoyaron la idea de que el gobierno retenga los ingresos: la disposición a pagar disminuyó en $1900 por cada 10 puntos porcentuales de los ingresos otorgados al gobierno. Las preferencias de los cazadores por dichos atributos de los viajes de caza difirieron dependiendo del grado al cual declararon un interés por la cultura etíope, la conservación de la naturaleza o su creencia en la inestabilidad política de Etiopía. En general, los respondientes así valoraron explícitamente los resultados de las actividades de conservación de la naturaleza - la presencia de vida silvestre en áreas de caza - y su disposición a pagar por ellos. Nuestros hallazgos resaltan la utilidad de percepción a partir del modelado de opciones para el diseño de planes de manejo de vida silvestre y políticas de conservación y sugieren que la caza de trofeos en Etiopía puede generar sustancialmente más apoyo financiero para la conservación y estar más en línea con los objetivos de conservación que los planes de manejo actuales.

The public and professionals reason similarly about the management of non-native invasive species: a quantitative investigation of the relationship between beliefs and attitudes.

Despite continued critique of the idea of clear boundaries between scientific and lay knowledge, the 'deficit-model' of public understanding of ecological issues still seems prevalent in discourses of biodiversity management. Prominent invasion biologists, for example, still argue that citizens need to be educated so that they accept scientists' views on the management of non-native invasive species. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey with members of the public and professionals in invasive species management (n = 732) in Canada and the UK to investigate commonalities and differences in their perceptions of species and, more importantly, how these perceptions were connected to attitudes towards species management. Both native and non-native mammal and tree species were included. Professionals tended to have more extreme views than the public, especially in relation to nativeness and abundance of a species. In both groups, species that were perceived to be more abundant, non-native, unattractive or harmful to nature and the economy were more likely to be regarded as in need of management. While perceptions of species and attitudes towards management thus often differed between public and professionals, these perceptions were linked to attitudes in very similar ways across the two groups. This suggests that ways of reasoning about invasive species employed by professionals and the public might be more compatible with each other than commonly thought. We recommend that managers and local people engage in open discussion about each other's beliefs and attitudes prior to an invasive species control programme. This could ultimately reduce conflict over invasive species control.

Deconstructing Community for Conservation: Why Simple Assumptions are Not Sufficient.

Many conservation policies advocate engagement with local people, but conservation practice has sometimes been criticised for a simplistic understanding of communities and social context. To counter this, this paper explores social structuring and its influences on conservation-related behaviours at the site of a conservation intervention near Pipar forest, within the Seti Khola valley, Nepal. Qualitative and quantitative data from questionnaires and Rapid Rural Appraisal demonstrate how links between groups directly and indirectly influence behaviours of conservation relevance (including existing and potential resource-use and proconservation activities). For low-status groups the harvesting of resources can be driven by others' preference for wild foods, whilst perceptions of elite benefit-capture may cause reluctance to engage with future conservation interventions. The findings reiterate the need to avoid relying on simple assumptions about 'community' in conservation, and particularly the relevance of understanding relationships between groups, in order to understand natural resource use and implications for conservation.

Governance change and institutional adaptation: a case study from Harenna forest, ethiopia.

Many common pool resources have traditionally been managed through intricate local governance arrangements. Over time, such arrangements are confronted with manifold political, social, economic and ecological changes. However, the ways in which local governance arrangements react to such changes are poorly understood. Using the theoretical concept of institutional adaptation, we analyse the history of Harenna forest, Ethiopia, to examine processes of institutional change over the last 150 years. We find that the traditional institutions that governed Harenna's resources persisted, in essence, over time. However, these institutions were modified repeatedly to address changes caused by varying formal, supra-regional governance regimes, the development of markets for forest products, increasing population pressure and changes in formal property rights. A key mechanism for adaptation was combining elements from both informal and formal institutions, which allowed traditional rules to persist in the guise of more formal arrangements. Our findings also highlight several constraints of institutional adaptation. For example, by abolishing fora for collective decision-making, regime changes limited adaptive capacity. To conclude, we argue that such insights into traditional resource governance and its adaptability and dynamics over time are essential to develop sustainable approaches to participatory forest management for the future, both in Harenna and more generally.

Effect of local cultural context on the success of community-based conservation interventions.

Conservation interventions require evaluation to understand what factors predict success or failure. To date, there has been little systematic investigation of the effect of social and cultural context on conservation success, although a large body of literature argues it is important. We investigated whether local cultural context, particularly local institutions and the efforts of interventions to engage with this culture significantly influence conservation outcomes. We also tested the effects of community participation, conservation education, benefit provision, and market integration. We systematically reviewed the literature on community-based conservation and identified 68 interventions suitable for inclusion. We used a protocol to extract and code information and evaluated a range of measures of outcome success (attitudinal, behavioral, ecological, and economic). We also examined the association of each predictor with each outcome measure and the structure of predictor covariance. Local institutional context influenced intervention outcomes, and interventions that engaged with local institutions were more likely to succeed. Nevertheless, there was limited support for the role of community participation, conservation education, benefit provision, and market integration on intervention success. We recommend that conservation interventions seek to understand the societies they work with and tailor their activities accordingly. Systematic reviews are a valuable approach for assessing conservation evidence, although sensitive to the continuing lack of high-quality reporting on conservation interventions.

Conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities in the central and eastern European countries.

Conflicts between the conservation of biodiversity and other human activities have been and continue to be of increasing concern in the European Union, often having important political, economic, and environmental repercussions. These conflicts have been addressed in the European Union by using a wide array of top down and bottom up tools, with varying degrees of success. A new challenge is now facing Europe with the integration of 10 new countries in the European Union (EU) and an additional range of biodiversity-rich habitats placed under EU legislation. The rich biodiversity of the central and eastern European countries (CEEC) is likely to be threatened by some aspects of the integration process, and conflicts between the conservation of biodiversity and other human activities are expected. In this paper, we review certain existing conflicts between biodiversity conservation and human activities in the CEEC, expected conflicts associated with integration to the EU, particularly in terms of new policy and legislation implementation, and, finally, explore possible conflict management options.

Interaction of the putative human cytomegalovirus portal protein pUL104 with the large terminase subunit pUL56 and its inhibition by benzimidazole-D-ribonucleosides.

Herpesvirus DNA replication leads to unit length genomes that are translocated into preformed procapsids through a unique portal vertex. The translocation is performed by the terminase that cleaves the DNA and powers the insertion by its ATPase activity. Recently, we demonstrated that the putative human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) portal protein, pUL104, also forms high-molecular-weight complexes. Analyses now have been performed to determine the intracellular localization and identification of interaction partners of pUL104. In infected cells, HCMV pUL104 was found to be predominantly localized throughout the nucleus as well as in cytoplasmic clusters at late times of infection. The latter localization was abolished by phosphonoacetic acid, an inhibitor of viral DNA replication. Immunofluorescence revealed that pUL104 colocalized with pUL56, the large subunit of the HCMV terminase. Specific association of in vitro translated pUL104 with the carboxy-terminal half of GST-UL56C was detected. By using coimmunoprecipitations a direct interaction with pUL56 was confirmed. In addition, this interaction was no longer detected when the benzimidazole-D-nucleosides BDCRB or Cl4RB were added, thus indicating that these HCMV inhibitors block the insertion of the DNA into the capsid by preventing a necessary interaction of pUL56 with the portal. Electron microscopy revealed that in the presence of Cl4RB DNA is not packaged into capsids and these capsids failed to egress from the nucleus. Furthermore, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis showed that DNA concatemers synthesized in the presence of the compound failed to be processed.