The role of governance in rewilding the United States to stem the biodiversity crisis.

A critical but underattended feature of the biodiversity crisis is the contraction of geographic range experienced by most studied terrestrial vertebrates. In the United States, the primary policy tool for mitigating the biodiversity crisis is a federal law, the Endangered Species Act (ESA). For the past two decades, the federal agencies that administer the ESA have interpreted the act in a manner that precludes treating this geographic element of the crisis. Therefore, the burden of mitigating the biodiversity crisis largely falls on wildlife agencies within state government, which are obligated to operate on behalf of the interests of their constituents. We present survey research indicating that most constituents expect state agencies to prioritize species restoration over other activities, including hunting. This prioritization holds even among self-identified hunters, which is significant because state agencies often take the provisioning of hunting opportunity as their top priority. By prioritizing rewilding efforts that restore native species throughout portions of their historic range, state agencies could unify hunting and nonhunting constituents while simultaneously stemming the biodiversity crisis.

Effect of semantics in the study of tolerance for wolves.

As conservation scholars increasingly recognize the critical role of human thought and behavior in determining the persistence of biodiversity across the globe, a growing line of inquiry regarding the validity and comparability of previous applications of core psychological concepts has emerged. Specifically, inconsistent measurement and use of terms, such as attitudes and acceptance, reveal important questions about previous approaches. Given that these concepts differ by definition, yet have been used interchangeably, we explored what drives differences in people's responses when each concept is operationalized in the context of a contested wildlife species, the gray wolf (Canis lupus). To do so, we used data from a 2014 survey of U.S. residents (n = 1287) to test how measures of six concepts (i.e., acceptance, attitudes, benefits, risks, [prior] behavior, and behavioral intentions) often employed in the conservation social sciences were related with a broad set of possible explanatory variables. Despite moderate to strong correlations between all concepts measured (| Pearson's r | = 0.39-0.65, p < 0.001), results revealed considerable variation in their respective relationships with identical explanatory variables. Specifically, although wildlife value orientation (i.e., domination or mutualism) operated fairly consistently across cognitive and behavioral concepts, the relationship between the six concepts and other factors, such as social trust, identification with various interest groups (i.e., hunter, farmer, or rancher, environmentalist, and animal rights advocate), and political ideology (i.e., liberal vs. conservative), varied considerably. Our findings underscore that differences exist in these measures, which could have serious implications for conservationists integrating social science findings in their decision-making processes if they are unaware of the theoretical underpinnings of and distinctions between core psychological concepts.

Efectos de la semántica en los estudios de tolerancia a los lobos Resumen Los académicos dedicados a la conservación reconocen cada vez más lo importantes que son el pensamiento y el comportamiento humano para definir la persistencia de la biodiversidad a nivel mundial, por lo que ha emergido una creciente línea de indagación con respecto a la validez y la comparabilidad de las aplicaciones previas de conceptos psicológicos fundamentales. Más específicamente, las medidas incompatibles y el uso de términos como actitudes y aceptación revelan preguntas importantes sobre las estrategias anteriores. Ya que estos conceptos difieren por definición y aun así se han usado indistintamente, decidimos explorar qué impulsa las diferencias en las respuestas de las personas cuando cada concepto opera en el contexto de una especie de fauna controvertida: el lobo gris (Canis lupus). Para lograr esto, usamos datos de un censo de 2014 aplicado a residentes estadunidenses (n = 1,287) para analizar cómo la medida de seis conceptos usados frecuentemente en las ciencias sociales de la conservación (aceptación, actitudes, beneficios, riesgos comportamiento [previo] e intenciones conductuales) se relacionan con un amplio conjunto de variables explicativas posibles. A pesar de las correlaciones moderadas y fuertes entre todos los conceptos medidos (| Pearson's r | = 0.39 a 0.65, p < 0.001), los resultados revelaron una variación considerable en sus respectivas relaciones con las variables explicativas idénticas. De manera más precisa, aunque la orientación del valor de la fauna (es decir, dominancia y mutualismo) operó uniformemente en los conceptos cognitivos y conductuales, la relación entre los seis conceptos y otros factores, como la confianza social, identificación con varios grupos de interés (cazador, agricultor o ranchero, ambientalista, defensor de los derechos animales) e ideología política (liberal vs conservador) variaron considerablemente. Nuestros resultados destacan las diferencias que existen en estas medidas, las cuales podrían tener repercusiones serias para los conservacionistas que integran los resultados de las ciencias sociales dentro de sus procesos de toma de decisiones si no están concientes de las teorías fundamentales y las distinciones entre los conceptos psicológicos fundamentales.

Potency testing of up to twenty cannabinoids by liquid chromatography diode array detector with optional electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

The growing popularity of Cannabis sativa L. and its widespread use for medical and recreational purposes have created an urgent demand of accurate and reliable analytical methods to identify and quantify a growing number of cannabinoids. To meet this demand, a liquid chromatography diode array detector (LC-DAD) method has been developed, validated, and applied in analysis of cannabinoids in nine samples of plant materials of marijuana, six samples of marijuana cigarettes, five samples of hemp flowers, one sample of hemp cigarette, and two samples of Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ8-THC) fortified hemp flowers. The method has achieved significant improvements over published methods, which was characterized of 20 targeted cannabinoids, 18 quantified cannabinoids, baseline resolution among quantified cannabinoids, a low limit of quantification (0.02 µg mL-1), a wide linear range (0.02-25 µg mL-1 or 0.04-50% (w/w)), a unique experiment to track the recovery of sample preparation in real time by spiking abnormal cannabidiol (CBD), and a well-assessed specificity by electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI/TOFMS). Precision and accuracy were assessed using quality control (QC) samples at three concentration levels, i.e., 0.02, 0.5, and 12.5 µg mL-1, in triplicates with inter-day and intra-day precision of less than 15% relative standard deviation (RSD) and accuracy of less than ±15% relative error, therefore meeting the requirements by the ISO 17025 standards. Additionally, ESI/TOFMS has discovered seven unknown cannabinoids, including one structural isomer of cannabigerol (CBG), one structural isomer of cannabinolic acid (CBNA), four structural isomers of Δ9-THC, and one structural isomer of Δ9-THC acetate. Furthermore, it uncovered that one of the two samples of Δ8-THC fortified hemp flowers contained 5.16% (w/w) Δ9-THC, an alarm to the current Δ8-THC craze by the public.

Development of a validated method for rapid quantification of up to sixteen cannabinoids using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography diode-array detector with optional electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection.

Due to the recent legalization of medical and recreational Cannabis in many countries in the world, there has been an increasing demand for accurate quantification of a growing number of cannabinoids. To meet this challenge, a method for rapid quantification of up to sixteen cannabinoids using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography diode-array detector (UHPLC-DAD) has been developed, validated and used in the analysis of hemp concentrates. While published LC-UV methods were usually for twelve or less cannabinoids and might not achieve baseline separation of some critical pairs of cannabinoids, e.g., CBG/CBD (cannabigerol/cannabidiol) and Δ9-THC/Δ8-THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), in this study a systematic separation optimization led to a resolution of 1.7 for both pairs. The linear calibration range of all cannabinoids were between 0.02 to 25 µg/mL in methanol, leading to the quantification of 0.1 to 125% (w/w) individual cannabinoids in hemp concentrates after they were mixed with methanol at 20 µg/mL and analyzed after ultrasonication, centrifugation and filtration. The analytical results showed that none of the nine analyzed samples contained any of the seven acidic cannabinoids, but all the nine neutral cannabinoids were detected, with average content ranging from 0.10 to 93.23% (w/w) and RSD (relative standard deviation) values from 0.3 to 11.2% in triplicates. Particularly, two hemp concentrates, i.e., delta 8 hemp distillate and delta 8 hemp shatter contained 9.35 and 11.33% (w/w) Δ9-THC, respectively. While published recovery experiments were limited by the unavailability of cannabinoid-free matrix and the high cost of cannabinoid standards, this problem was solved by spiking abnormal CBD, a cannabinoid not naturally present in Cannabis plants and commercially available with a reasonable price, into the samples. The obtained average recovery ranged from 94.8 to 103.6% with RSD values from 1.5 to 9.0% in triplicates for the nine analyzed samples. Electrospray ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ESI/TOFMS) confirmed the good specificity of the UHPLC-DAD method, i.e., without any false positive identification of individual cannabinoids, and discovered six untargeted cannabinoids that were structural isomers of Δ9-THC in the nine hemp concentrate samples.