Systems and Environmental Decision Making—Postgraduate Open Learning with the Open University

Environmental issues affect everyone though the ways in which people engage with them varies a great deal. The Open University's Masters program in environmental decision making has at its core a modular course that enables students to incorporate environmental factors into their decision making from a starting point of identifying their own environmental issues using a systems approach. Students carry out a project based on their own experience in a decision-making situation of their own choice. A framework for environmental decision making is introduced and students learn how to use the framework systematically, systemically and critically. The course has evolved since it was first introduced in 1997 as both students and the course team have learnt about environmental decision making together. This paper analyses and interprets some of the data that have emerged from students projects since the course began.     

Light reversal of a morphine-induced analgesia susceptibility rhythm in mice

Zusammenfassung Durch Tag-Nacht-Umkehr konnte bei Mäusen eine entsprechende Phasenverschiebung beim Muster der Sensibilität für die schmerzstillende Wirkung des Morphins erzielt werden.     

Temperature acclimatization and protein synthesis in the goldfish mucosa

Resumen La síntesis de proteinas en la mucosa del pez dorado aclimatado a 8 °C, aumenta inmediatamente cuando la temperatura del baño aumenta a 25 °C. Un nuevo aumento en la sintesis de proteinas se observa después de 10 h. Estc ùltimo aumento es inhibido por actinomicinan. La reorganizatión en la síntesis de proteinas parece completarse dentro de las 30 h siguientes al aumento de temperatura. A pesar de que se observan variaciones grandes en diferentes peces la evidencia sugiere que al menos parte del fenómeno de aclimatación en la mucosa del pez dorado está relacionado con la síntesis del RNA mensajero.     

Genetic similarity and quality interact in mate choice decisions by female mice

Females express mate preferences for genetically dissimilar males, especially with respect to the major histocompatibility complex, MHC, and for males whose sexually selected signals indicate high genetic quality. The balance of selection pressure on each trait will depend on how females weight these desirable qualities under different conditions, but this has not been tested empirically. Here we show in mice that although MHC dissimilarity and a 'good genes' indicator (investment in scent-marking) both have a role in determining female preference, their relative influence can vary depending on the degree of variability in each trait among available males. Such interactions between condition-dependent and disassortative mate choice criteria suggest a mechanism by which female choice can contribute to maintenance of additive genetic variance in both the MHC and condition-dependent traits, even under consistent directional selection.