Unsung heroes: Constituency election agents in British general elections

Despite their central role in the electoral process, constituency agents have been largely overlooked by political scientists and this article seeks to rectify the omission. It sketches the origins and development of the role of agent from the late 19th century and suggests that a serious rethink of the role took place in the 1990s. Survey-based evidence about the social characteristics of agents is presented confirming that they are largely middle-aged, middle-class, well-educated men. They are also becoming more experienced, offer realistic assessments of the impact of constituency campaigning and, arguably, many take a long-term view of how their party's support can be maximised

Airport noise predicts song timing of European birds

Anthropogenic noise is of increasing concern to biologists and medical scientists. Its detrimental effects on human health have been well studied, with the high noise levels from air traffic being of particular concern. However, less is known about the effects of airport noise pollution on signal masking in wild animals. Here, we report a relationship between aircraft noise and two major features of the singing behavior of birds. We found that five of ten songbird species began singing significantly earlier in the morning in the vicinity of a major European airport than their conspecifics at a quieter control site. As birds at both sites started singing before the onset of air traffic in the morning, this suggests that the birds in the vicinity of the airport advanced their activity to gain more time for unimpaired singing before the massive plane noise set in. In addition, we found that during the day, chaffinches avoided singing during airplane takeoffs, but only when the noise exceeded a certain threshold, further suggesting that the massive noise caused by the airport can impair acoustic communication in birds. Overall, our study indicates that birds may be adjusting their mating signals and time budgets in response to aircraft noise

Outer-sphere electron-transfer between horse heart cytochrome c and anionic Cu(II/I) complexes: Evidence for precursor formation and coordination sphere reorganization for electron transfer

The outer-sphere electron-transfer reaction between anionic bis(5,6-bis(4-sulfonatophenyl)-3- (2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazine)Cu(II) and cytochrome cII was investigated as a function of pH, ionic strength, concentration, temperature and pressure. The plot of the observed pseudo-first-order rate constant as a function of the Cu(II) complex concentration showed saturation at higher Cu(II) concentrations, from which the precursor formation constant and the electron transfer rate constant could be separated (K = (7.7 ′ 0.5) × 103 M 1 and kET= 6.2 ′ 0.4 s -1 at I = 0.2 M, pH 7.4 and 288 K). The pseudo-first-order electron-transfer rate constant was measured as a function of temperature and pressure at (low and) high Cu(II) concentrations (ΔH= (85 ′ 4) 89 ′ 4 kJ mol -1; ΔS= (-61 ′ 13) -79 ′ 15 J K-1 mol-1; ΔG (288 K) = (67.6) 66.1 kJ mol-1; ΔV= (+8.8 ′ 0.6)+8.0 ′ 0.7 cm3 mol-1). Within the volume change for the overall reaction, the volume profile for the electron transfer step is almost symmetrical. The redox process and the change in coordination of the copper centre are proposed to be clearly separated. The back reaction between the Cu(I) complex and cytochrome cIII was investigated as a function of Cu(I) concentration at pH 7.4 at l bar. The observed pseudo-first-order rate constant reaches a saturation at high Cu(I) concentrations from which the precursor formation constant and the electron-transfer rate constant were estimated (K' = (2.0 ′ 0.2) × 103 M-1 and k'ET = 0.014 ′ 0.001 s-1 at I = 0.2 M, pH 7.4 and 288 K). Simulations of the measured cyclovoltammogramms applying an EC mechanism with two redox systems and two homogeneous chemical reactions were performed. The results are discussed with reference to earlier studies involving Co, Ru and Cr complexes as redox partners for cytochrome c

The analysis of facial beauty: an emerging area of research in pattern analysis

Much research presented recently supports the idea that the human perception of attractiveness is data-driven and largely irrespective of the perceiver. This suggests using pattern analysis techniques for beauty analysis. Several scientific papers on this subject are appearing in image processing, computer vision and pattern analysis contexts, or use techniques of these areas. In this paper, we will survey the recent studies on automatic analysis of facial beauty, and discuss research lines and practical application

A Primer of Conservation Behavior

Book review

A generation apart? Youth and political participation in Britain

Conventional wisdom holds that young people in Britain are alienated from politics, with some claiming that this reflects a wider crisis of legitimacy that should be met by initiatives to increase citizenship. This article addresses these areas, presenting both panel survey and focus group data from first-time voters. It concludes that, contrary to the findings from many predominantly quantitative studies of political participation, young people are interested in political matters, and do support the democratic process. However they feel a sense of anti-climax having voted for the first time, and are critical of those who have been elected to positions of political power. If they are a generation apart, this is less to do with apathy, and more to do with their engaged scepticism about ‘formal’ politics in Britain

Assessing the developmental stress hypothesis in the context of a reaction norm

Biolog