Anyone who has conducted field research knows that the very process of collecting data alters the system that you are studying. As you walk across a field, forest or stream to collect data, your footfalls trample vegetation, they compact the soil, they scrape algae off the rocks. Survey work usually involves a single visit to a site - as long as you avoid sampling from the areas you have trampled, it’s usually pretty safe to assume that your presence is unlikely to have affected the data that you have collected. Permanent plots are a different matter - because these plots are repeatedly sampled, there is cumulative damage. In larger plots, permanent trails may be established within plots.

Since we can’t avoid these effects, the real question is whether the effects are significant. Ecological systems are inherently heterogeneous. Does the effect of disturbance fall within the range of natural variability within the sample? That’s what really matters when it comes to data collection. In a forthcoming paper in the journal Biotropica, Liza Comita and Gregory Goldsmith “sought to quantify the significance and spatial extent of research trail impacts on the structure and dynamics of the seedling layer in the 50-ha permanent forest dynamics plot on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), Panama”.

MARLOW, England, February 8 /PRNewswire/ --

- UK Launch of new and Gentle Dermal Filler Which Promises to Help Patients Feel the Difference and Provide Long-Lasting Results

Allergan, the makers of BOTOX(R) / VISTABEL(R) (botulinum toxin type A), today announced the UK launch of Juvéderm(R) ULTRA, a new range of dermal filler gel range for the treatment of facial wrinkles and folds. Juvéderm(R) ULTRA contains an anaesthetic, meaning people have a gentle injection experience. According to preliminary results from a study of 60 women released at the International Master Course on Aging Skin (IMCAS), 81% of people who received Juvederm(R) ULTRA felt only slight or no discomfort at all.(1)

NEW YORK, February 7 /PRNewswire/ --

P\S\L Group is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Barnes to the newly created position of Group President for P\S\L Research (PSLR).

In his new role, Mr. Barnes will lead the P\S\L Research Group, which consists of all existing research businesses: P\S\L Research International, P\S\L Research Europe and P\S\L Research Canada. His focus will be to ensure that the existing research businesses continue to realize their full potential, and also to develop new research and consulting services to support specific market-focused client needs.

TARRYTOWN, New York, February 7 /PRNewswire/ --

- Advanced mobile chip innovator showcases 4G Software Modem form-factor UE

Sandbridge Technologies, a cutting edge fabless semiconductor company developing multi-mode baseband/multimedia processors for low-cost advanced mobile data devices, announced today that it will showcase an LTE UE implementation based on it's SB3000(R) series SOC platform during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The LTE system implementation was developed in partnership with mimoOn -- a communications SW IP company based in Duisburg, Germany.

There was a time when you had to be rich to be fat. Now you have to be rich to stay thin, says a new study.

Researchers led by Jennifer L. Black at New York University critically reviewed ninety studies published between 1997 through 2007 on neighborhood determinants of obesity through the PubMed and PsychInfo databases.

They found that neighborhoods with decreased economic and social resources have higher rates of obesity. They also found that residents in low-income urban areas are more likely to report greater neighborhood barriers to physical activity, such as limited opportunities for daily walking or physical activity and reduced access to stores that sell healthy foods, especially large supermarkets.

Turning native ecosystems into “farms” for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate, according to a new study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy.

The carbon lost by converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands outweighs the carbon savings from biofuels. Such conversions for corn or sugarcane (ethanol), or palms or soybeans (biodiesel) release 17 to 420 times more carbon than the annual savings from replacing fossil fuels, the researchers said. The carbon, which is stored in the original plants and soil, is released as carbon dioxide, a process that may take decades.

This “carbon debt” must be paid before the biofuels produced on the land can begin to lower greenhouse gas levels and ameliorate global warming.

A study by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley says that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes.

In addition, the findings show that society is more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of its broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, according to the researchers.

Co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of psychology, said she was shocked by the results, particularly since they involved subjects born after Jim Crow and the civil rights movement. "This was actually some of the most depressing work I have done," she said. "This shook me up. You have suspicions when you do the work—intuitions—you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare for how strong [the black-ape association] was—how we were able to pick it up every time."

Anoop Sindhu and colleagues report on a gene that may have played a key role in the evolution of grasses. The gene, Hm1, provides resistance against Cochliobolus carbonum race 1 (CCR1), a fungus that is capable of attacking and killing corn at any stage of its development (images of CCR1 infection). While CCR1 is only known to affect corn, the gene Hm1 and its relatives are present throughout the grass family, but are absent from other lineages.

LONDON, February 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Planalytics Inc., the global leader in Business Weather Intelligence(SM), released its January WeatherCall(SM) report today stating that favourable weather conditions at month's end will benefit retailers after an otherwise slow start due to above normal temperatures. January spawned a drastic difference in temperature between the northern and southern parts of the country. A series of rain bearing systems moved across the UK, resulting in cooler temperatures for Scotland, while England and Wales were experiencing more mild conditions.

MCKINNEY, Texas, February 7 /PRNewswire/ --

Torchmark Corporation (NYSE: TMK) announced today that its Chief Executive Officer, Mark McAndrew, and Chief Financial Officer, Gary Coleman, will present Tuesday, February 12, 2008 at the Merrill Lynch Insurance Investors Conference in New York City. Torchmark's presentation is scheduled to begin at 2:20 p.m. EST.

The presentation will be webcast live at: http://www.torchmarkcorp.com on the Investor Relations page, under "Management Presentations" or http://www.veracast.com/webcasts/ml/insurance08/35112276.cfm