Socialization with Alcohol or Alcohol as Socialization: An Actor-Network Theory Approach to Understanding College Student Alcohol Use

Many studies of college student drinking focus on understanding the problematic consequences of alcohol use. This research, however, does less to illuminate the cultural meanings of the use of alcohol. To address this gap, I examine how students relate to drinking alcohol socially, paying particular attention to how drinking and non-drinking emerge as meaningful behaviors in particular social settings. I analyze drinking qualitatively, focusing on the student perception of the significance of alcohol consumption as part of social interaction to understand the impact that alcohol itself has on the social setting. By employing an Actor-Network Theory framework I conclude that the presence of alcohol defines the setting and the types of interaction that take place. I also find that frequent drinkers, non-frequent drinkers, and abstainers engage in various identity-management strategies to facilitate or impede interaction by using setting-specific strategies

A perfusion protocol for lizards, including a method for brain removal

The goal of fixation is to rapidly and uniformly preserve tissue in a life-like state. Perfusion achieves optimal fixation by pumping fixative directly through an animal's circulatory system. Standard perfusion techniques were developed primarily for application in mammals, which are traditional neuroscience research models. Increasingly, other vertebrate groups are also being used in neuroscience. Following mammalian perfusion protocols for non-mammalian vertebrates often results in failed perfusions. Here, I present a modified perfusion protocol suitable for lizards. Though geared towards standard brain perfusion, this protocol is easily modified for the perfusion of other tissues and for various specialized histological techniques. The two aortas of the lizard heart, emerging from a single ventricle, mean that care must be taken to place the perfusion needle in the correct aorta, unlike in mammals.Only the head and neck perfuse - the visceral organs will not decolour, and the body may not twitch.I also include a method for removing a lizard brain, which differs from mammals due to the incomplete and thicker skull of the lizard.Funding was provided by grants from the Australian National University (APA-31/2011) and the Canadian National Science and Engineering Research Council (PGSD3-415253-2012)

Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) Level 2: Structures and Facilities for Model Definitions

With the rise of Systems Biology as a new paradigm for understanding biological processes, the development of quantitative models is no longer restricted to a small circle of theoreticians. The dramatic increase in the number of these models precipitates the need to exchange and reuse both existing and newly created models. The Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) is a free, open, XML-based format for representing quantitative models of biological interest that advocates the consistent specification of such models and thus facilitates both software development and model exchange.

Principally oriented towards describing systems of biochemical reactions, such as cell signalling pathways, metabolic networks and gene regulation etc., SBML can also be used to encode any kinetic model. SBML offers mechanisms to describe biological components by means of compartments and reacting species, as well as their dynamic behaviour, using reactions, events and arbitrary mathematical rules. SBML also offers all the housekeeping structures needed to ensure an unambiguous understanding of quantitative descriptions.

This is Release 1 of the specification for SBML Level 2 Version 4, describing the structures of the language and the rules used to build a valid model. SBML XML Schema and other related documents and software are also available from the SBML project web site, "http://sbml.org/":http://sbml.org/

Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML) Level 2: Structures and Facilities for Model Definitions

Not applicabl

Software that goes with the flow in systems biology

A recent article in BMC Bioinformatics describes new advances in workflow systems for computational modeling in systems biology. Such systems can accelerate, and improve the consistency of, modeling through automation not only at the simulation and results-production stages, but also at the model-generation stage. Their work is a harbinger of the next generation of more powerful software for systems biologists

A subsystems approach for parameter estimation of ODE models of hybrid systems

We present a new method for parameter identification of ODE system descriptions based on data measurements. Our method works by splitting the system into a number of subsystems and working on each of them separately, thereby being easily parallelisable, and can also deal with noise in the observations.Comment: In Proceedings HSB 2012, arXiv:1208.315

Knowledge, Certainty, and Factivity: A Possible Rapprochement

In recent discussions in this journal, Moti Mizrahi defends the claim that knowledge equals epistemic certainty. Howard Sankey finds Mizrahi’s argument to be problematic, since, as he reads it, this would entail that justification must guarantee truth. In this article, I suggest that an account of the normativity of justification is able to bridge the gap between Mizrahi’s proposal and Sankey’s objections

What If the Black Forest Owned Itself? A Constitutional Property Law Perspective on Rights of Nature

Ownership has been a key tool in the exploitation of nature for centuries. However, ownership could also shield natural entities from extraction and pollution if it were vested in them, rather than in humans or corporations. Through a case study of German constitutional property law, this article examines the normative content of this constitutional right. It argues that in owning themselves, natural entities would have numerous tools to fend off human interference with their self-determination. Constitutional property law would require any harmful activity affecting the natural entity to be based upon legislation and necessary to achieve a public purpose. The natural entity would enjoy broader access to justice. Courts would also often award appropriate remedies; where the natural entity would be awarded only compensation, this would be unsatisfactory because money cannot replace nature. The article finds that constitutional property law offers the potential for further protection from human interference, which has not been realized because of anthropocentric value judgments prevalent in German legal doctrine. Ecocentric approaches to ownership and invalidity as a standard remedy would play an important role in unlocking the full potential of ownership for environmental protection