Description: This article discusses biocultural ethics. Abstract: Biocultural homogenization involves three major drivers: (a) the physical barrier to everyday contact with biodiversity derived from the rapid growth of urban population, (b) the conceptual barrier derived from the omission in formal and non-formal education of native languages that contain a broad spectrum of traditional ecological knowledge and values, and (c) political barriers associated with the elimination or reduction of the teaching of ethics under the prevailing neoliberal economy governance since the 1960s. Biocultural ethics aims at overcoming these barriers by recovering the vital links between biological and cultural diversity, between the habits and the habitats of the inhabitants. These links are acknowledged by early Western philosophy. Amerindian traditional ecological knowledge, and contemporary ecological and evolutionary sciences, but have been lost in prevailing modern ethics. There is an overlooked diversity of forms of knowing and inhabiting regional ecosystems, each of them having diverse environmental and social consequences. A better understanding of the regionally diverse mosaics of ecosystems, languages, and cultures facilitates the distinction of specific causes and responsible agents of environmental problems, and the disclosure of sustainable practices, forms of ecological knowledge and values that offer already existing options to solve socio-ecological problems.

Description: This article offers viewpoints on Broader Impacts 2.0. The authors point out that the National Science Board (NSB) has presented us with merit review criteria that challenge us to undertake research that marries scientific merit and broader impacts in a way that benefits the research community, our funding sources, and our society.

Description: This article discusses C-H functionalization reactivity of a Nickel-Imide. Abstract: We report report bifunctional reactivity of the β-diketiminato Ni(III)-imide [Me₃NN]Ni=NAd (1), which undergoes H-atom abstraction (HAA) reactions with benzylic substrates R-H (indane, ethylbenzene, toluene). Nickel-imide 1 competes with the nickel-amide HAA product [Me₃NN]Ni-NHAd (2) for the resulting hydrocarbyl radical R• to give the nickel-amide [Me₃NN]Ni-N(CHMePh)Ad (3) (R-H = ethylbenzene) or aminoalkyl tautomer [Me₃NN]Ni(ɳ²-CH(Ph)NHAd) (4) (R-H = toluene). A significant amount of functionalized amine R-NHAd is observed in the reaction of 1 with indane along with the dinickel imide {[Me₃NN]Ni}₂(μ-NAd) (5). Kinetic and DFT analyses point to rate-limiting HAA from R-H by 1 to give R•, which may add to either imide 1 or amide 2, each featuring significant N-based radical character. Thus, these studies illustrate a fundamental competition possible in C-H amination systems that proceed via a HAA/radical rebound mechanism.

Description: This article discusses carbon tunneling. Abstract: Calculations on the role of tunneling in the degenerate Cope rearrangements of semibullvalene (1) and barbaralane (3) predict that, at temperatures below 40 K, tunneling from the lowest vibrational level should make the temperature-independent rate constants k = 1.43 x 10(-3) s(-1) and k = 7.28 x 10(-9) s(-1), respectively. An experiment, using semibullvalene-2(4)-d1, is proposed to test the prediction of rapid tunneling by 1 at cryogenic temperatures.

Description: This article discusses cardiac and metabolic physiology of early larval zebrafish (Danio rerio) reflecting parental swimming stamina. Abstract: Swimming stamina in adult fish is heritable, it is unknown if inherited traits that support enhanced swimming stamina in offspring appear only in juveniles and/or adults, or if these traits actually appear earlier in the morphologically quite different larvae. To answer this question, mature adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) were subjected to a swimming performance test that allowed separation into low swimming stamina or high swimming stamina groups. Adults were then bred within their own performance groups. Larval offspring from each of the two groups, designated high (L(HSD)) and low stamina-derived larvae (L(LSD)), were then reared at 27°C in aerated water (21% O(2)). Routine (f(H),r) and active (f(H),a) heart rate, and routine [Formula: see text] and active [Formula: see text] mass-specific oxygen consumption were recorded from 5 days post fertilization (dpf) through 21 dpf, and gross cost of transport and factorial aerobic metabolic scope were derived from [Formula: see text] measurements. Heart rate generally ranged between 150 and 225 bpm in both L(HSD) and L(LSD) populations. However, significant (P<0.05) differences existed between the L(LSD) and L(HSD) populations at 5 and 14 dpf in ...