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"Griffiths, Brian"
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Algorithms to live by : the computer science of human decisions
Explores \"how the algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of memory, [this book] transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living\"--Amazon.com.
Book
Inflation Is About More Than Money
In \"Inflation Is About More Than Money\", Brian Griffiths charts recent history and policy developments with regard to inflation. He sees inflation as a moral problem: a form of taxation and deceit that those in positions of authority should always seek to address. Considering a range of theoretical approaches to inflation, he advances a pragmatic monetarist approach and offers a series of concrete recommendations for both dealing with inflation and protecting against it in the future. In addition, the author examines the cultural factors at play, such as disillusionment with democracy and social fragmentation. He argues for the importance of a shared moral framework, or \"sacred canopy\", to underpin our collective purpose and provide a foundation for economic, social and political stability. Accessible and engaging, \"Inflation Is About More Than Money\" will appeal to those who are interested in questions of wealth and poverty, the role of central banks and politicians, responsible economic management, and the importance of moral values in economic and political life.
eBook
Hugo
Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, twelve-year-old Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric girl and the owner of a small toy booth in the train station, Hugo's undercover life, and his most precious secret, are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical man, and a hidden message all come together to change Hugo's life forever.
DVD
Drivers of geophagy of large-bodied amazonian herbivorous and frugivorous mammals
Mineral licks, critical for the survival of many large-bodied mammals in the Amazon, serve as keystone resources that influence the behavior and ecological dynamics of these species. This study presents the most comprehensive analysis to date on the drivers of geophagy—the consumption of soil by animals—at mineral licks in the Peruvian Amazon. Using a combination of camera traps and soil analyses from 52 mineral licks, we examined the visitation patterns of six large-bodied mammals: the black agouti (
Dasyprocta fuliginosa
), paca (
Cuniculus paca
), collared peccary (
Pecari tajacu)
, Brazilian porcupine (
Coendou prehensilis
), lowland tapir (
Tapirus terrestris
), and red howler monkey (
Alouatta seniculus
). Our results reveal that mineral licks provide essential nutrients, particularly sodium (Na), which may be deficient in the diets of frugivorous species such as agouti, paca, and red howler monkey, supporting the mineral supplementation hypothesis. Conversely, the toxin adsorption hypothesis, which posits that animals consume soil to mitigate dietary toxins, was most strongly supported for the herbivorous Brazilian porcupine. The omnivorous collared peccary and the mixed-diet tapir exhibited complex interactions between soil characteristics, suggesting that both mineral supplementation and toxin adsorption play roles in their geophagy. This study highlights the importance of mineral licks for the conservation of Amazonian mammals, emphasizing their role in supporting biodiversity by providing critical nutritional resources that enhance species fitness and ecological resilience. Our findings underscore the need for the protection of these sites, which are integral not only to the survival of individual species but also to the health of the broader Amazonian ecosystem.
Journal Article
Stress and corticosteroids regulate rat hippocampal mitochondrial DNA gene expression via the glucocorticoid receptor
Glucocorticoids (GCs) are involved in stress and circadian regulation, and produce many actions via the GC receptor (GR), which is classically understood to function as a nuclear transcription factor. However, the nuclear genome is not the only genome in eukaryotic cells. The mitochondria also contain a small circular genome, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), that encodes 13 polypeptides. Recent work has established that, in the brain and other systems, the GR is translocated from the cytosol to the mitochondria and that stress and corticosteroids have a direct influence on mtDNA transcription and mitochondrial physiology. To determine if stress affects mitochondrially transcribed mRNA (mtRNA) expression, we exposed adult male rats to both acute and chronic immobilization stress and examined mtRNA expression using quantitative RT-PCR. We found that acute stress had a main effect on mtRNA expression and that expression of NADH dehydrogenase 1, 3, and 6 (ND-1, ND-3, ND-6) and ATP synthase 6 (ATP-6) genes was significantly down-regulated. Chronic stress induced a significant up-regulation of ND-6 expression. Adrenalectomy abolished acute stress-induced mtRNA regulation, demonstrating GC dependence. ChIP sequencing of GR showed that corticosterone treatment induced a dose-dependent association of the GR with the control region of the mitochondrial genome. These findings demonstrate GR and stress-dependent transcriptional regulation of the mitochondrial genome in vivo and are consistent with previous work linking stress and GCs with changes in the function of brain mitochondria.
Journal Article
Temporal patterns of visitation of birds and mammals at mineral licks in the Peruvian Amazon
Mineral licks are key ecological resources for many species of birds and mammals in Amazonia, providing essential dietary nutrients and clays, yet little is known about which species visit and their behaviors at the mineral licks. Studying visitation and behavior at mineral licks can provide insight into the lives of otherwise secretive and elusive species. We assessed which species visited mineral licks, when they visited, and whether visits and the probability of recording groups at mineral licks were seasonal or related to the lunar cycle. We camera trapped at 52 mineral licks in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon and detected 20 mammal and 13 bird species over 6,255 camera nights. Generalized linear models assessed visitation patterns and records of groups in association with seasonality and the lunar cycle. We report nocturnal curassows (Nothocrax urumutum) visiting mineral licks for the first time. We found seasonal trends in visitation for the black agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa), red howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus), blue‐throated piping guan (Pipile cumanensis), red brocket deer (Mazama americana), collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), and tapir (Tapirus terrestris). Lunar trends in visitation occurred for the paca (Cuniculus paca), Brazilian porcupine (Coendou prehensilis), and red brocket deer. The probability of recording groups (>1 individual) at mineral licks was seasonal and related to lunar brightness for tapir. Overall, our results provide important context for how elusive species of birds and mammals interact with these key ecological resources on a landscape scale. The ecological importance of mineral licks for these species can provide context to seasonal changes in species occupancy and movement. Many species of animals in the Amazon visit mineral licks, consuming soil to supplement their diet. Using camera trap data, we show that visits to mineral licks are seasonal for many species. These trends in visitation are likely due to species‐specific factors such as reproduction, predator avoidance, seasonal diet shifts, and resource use.
Journal Article
Adult neurogenesis from reprogrammed astrocytes
The details of adult neurogenesis, including environmental triggers, region specificity, and species homology remain an area of intense investigation. Slowing or halting age-related cognitive dysfunction, or restoring neurons lost to disease or injury represent just a fraction of potential therapeutic applications. New neurons can derive from stem cells, pluripotent neural progenitor cells, or non-neuronal glial cells, such as astrocytes. Astrocytes must be epigenetically \"reprogrammed\" to become neurons, which can occur both naturally in vivo, and via artificial exogenous treatments. While neural progenitor cells are localized to a few neurogenic zones in the adult brain, astrocytes populate almost every brain structure. In this review, we will summarize recent research into neurogenesis that arises from conversion of post-mitotic astrocytes, detail the genetic and epigenetic pathways that regulate this process, and discuss the possible clinical relevance in supplementing stem-cell neurogenic therapies.
Journal Article
Spatiotemporal variation in hunting in a riverine indigenous community in the Amazon
Hunting is a critical source of food security and income for millions of people across the Amazon Basin, but unsustainable hunting is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss worldwide. Models on the sustainability of hunting often use a spatial estimate of hunting pressure which radiates constantly from a central location. We used participatory mapping and interview techniques with hunters and a generalized linear modeling approach to determine how the spread of hunting pressure varies spatially and through time, and how harvests changed accordingly, in a riverine indigenous community in the Peruvian Amazon. Model results showed significant variation in the spatial spread of hunting pressure seasonally, where the upper regions of the river basin were predicted to be relatively inaccessible during the dry season. Significant covariates included landscape characteristics such as distance from major rivers and presence of major trails and seasonal streams, as well as monthly rainfall and month of the year among others. Catch also varied by month, and spatially reflected the spread of monthly hunting pressure. Catch per unit effort (CPUE) was significantly related to rainfall (estimate = − 0.0036, SE = 0.00061, p < 0.001), and monthly patterns in CPUE matched those of game meat sales. Seasonally changing environmental characteristics like rainfall and water level likely influence the species and zones that hunters have access to and may influence the sustainability of hunting of some species as areas they inhabit become inaccessible during the dry season.
Journal Article
Drivers of geophagy by red brocket deer (Mazama americana) at Amazonian interior forest mineral licks
Mineral licks are key ecological components of the Amazon rainforest, providing critical dietary functions for herbivorous and frugivorous mammals and birds, which help maintain the structure and function of the forest itself through seed and nutrient dispersal. One of the most frequent visitors of interior forest mineral licks in the Amazon is the red brocket deer (Mazama americana), a large‐bodied ruminant frugivore and seed predator. While several hypotheses for the drivers of geophagy exist, including mineral supplementation, toxin adsorption, and habitat selection, robust data on geophagy for the red brocket deer for large numbers of mineral licks is nonexistent. We used soil data from 83 mineral licks in conjunction with camera trap data from 52 of those mineral licks and a mixed‐effects modeling approach to test the three proposed hypotheses of geophagy for the red brocket deer. We found that consumed soils at mineral licks had elevated concentrations of almost all major and minor biologically active minerals measured, including Ca, Na, Mg, K, Cu, Zn, and Mn. Model results suggest that all three hypotheses hold true to some extent for the red brocket deer, with the greatest support for the mineral supplementation hypothesis, in particular with respect to Mg, Ca, Na, Cu, and Zn. This study provides critical information on the feeding ecology of the red brocket deer in the wild, and the first robust analysis of geophagy of an Amazonian mammal involving a large sample size of interior forest mineral licks. Mineral licks are critical resources for herbivores across the world, including the Peruvian Amazon, but the services they provide visiting animals are largely unknown. We tested three hypotheses for geophagical behavior in the red brocket deer, one of the most common visitors to Amazonian mineral licks, at mineral licks in the Peruvian Amazon using camera traps, soil sampling, and a modeling framework. We found that all three hypotheses had at least some support, but the mineral supplementation hypothesis was the most heavily supported.
Journal Article
Physical, landscape, and chemical properties of Amazonian interior forest mineral licks
Mineral licks, sites where animals go to consume soil, are key resources for herbivorous birds and mammals in the Amazon, providing supplemental dietary nutrients and toxin adsorption functions. However, because they are often difficult to find, the properties of mineral licks are poorly understood. Here, we undertake the largest survey of Amazonian mineral licks to date to determine the landscape, physical, and chemical properties of these critical sites. We used a generalized linear mixed-effects modeling framework to assess how soil samples from 83 mineral licks differ from nearby control soils in a series of physical and chemical characteristics, then used Jaccard’s index of similarity and a principal component analysis (PCA) to determine how those samples differed among themselves. We found that mineral licks were generally located in specific ranges of landscape variables. Soils from mineral licks had elevated concentrations of almost all minerals measured. There was very little similarity between consumed and control samples, and within each sample type. We suggest that these mineral licks have the potential to provide multiple services to visiting species, demonstrating their ecological importance. The high levels of dissimilarity between samples indicate that a large sample of mineral licks is needed to draw conclusions in studies pertaining to geophagy. We emphasize that studying mammal and bird visitation at these sites could provide critical conservation and physiological information on cryptic and understudied species of Amazonian herbivores.
Journal Article