"Bed bugs live in dirty places"-How Using Live Animals in Teaching Contributes to Reducing Stigma, Disgust, Psychological Stigma, and Misinformation in Students.

Bed bugs are on the rise and are increasingly perceived as harmful parasites. Because individuals affected by bed bugs often feel disgust and shame and are stigmatized, bed bugs are an important public health and environmental justice concern and therefore a health education issue as well. In this quasi-experimental study, we examine how different constructs, namely, forms of stigma, disgust, psychological distance, and myths about bed bugs (dependent variables), change over time (pre/posttest) in response to two forms of teaching intervention (independent variables) in upper secondary-level high school.

German high school students' attitudes and interest in cancer and factors influencing proactive behaviour for cancer prevention.

Cancer diseases are pertinent topics to young people, who are confronted with the issue through media or family members that suffer from these diseases. Based on a paper-and-pencil questionnaire, we investigated German high school students' (N = 369, 16-18 years old) interest in and their attitudes towards cancer. Attitude was assessed measuring multiple dimensions that included scales to measure several components: the cognitive (beliefs about the controllability of cancer), the affective (emotional responses towards cancer) and the behavioural (intention for proactive behaviour towards cancer) components.

Carbon flux and growth in mature deciduous forest trees exposed to elevated CO2.

Whether rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations will cause forests to grow faster and store more carbon is an open question. Using free air CO2 release in combination with a canopy crane, we found an immediate and sustained enhancement of carbon flux through 35-meter-tall temperate forest trees when exposed to elevated CO2. However, there was no overall stimulation in stem growth and leaf litter production after 4 years.

Responses of deciduous forest trees to severe drought in Central Europe.

In 2003, Central Europe experienced the warmest summer on record combined with unusually low precipitation. We studied plant water relations and phenology in a 100-year- old mixed deciduous forest on a slope (no ground water table) near Basel using the Swiss Canopy Crane (SCC). The drought lasted from early June to mid September.

Growth and reproduction of the alpine grasshopper Miramella alpina feeding on CO2-enriched dwarf shrubs at treeline.

The consequences for plant-insect interactions of atmospheric changes in alpine ecosystems are not well understood. Here, we tested the effects of elevated CO(2) on leaf quality in two dwarf shrub species (Vaccinium myrtillus and V. uliginosum) and the response of the alpine grasshopper (Miramella alpina) feeding on these plants in a field experiment at the alpine treeline (2,180 m a.

Atmospheric CO enrichment of alpine treeline conifers.

•   Experimental CO enrichment of mature Larix decidua and Pinus uncinata trees and their understory vegetation was used to test the carbon limitation hypothesis of treeline formation at the alpine treeline in Switzerland. •   Forty plots (each 1.1 m ) were established; half of them were exposed to elevated (566 ppm) atmospheric CO using a free air CO enrichment (FACE) system releasing pure CO , and the other half were treated as controls at current ambient [CO ].