025.431: The Dewey blog

Prairie Dogs

An article in a recent issue of Science ("At Home on the Range: Prairie Rodents Yield Their Secrets to a Dogged Observer") begins:

To say that John Hoogland is passionate about prairie dogs is an understatement. A behavioral ecologist, he has studied these North American colonial rodents for 40 years, spending months at a time sitting in a blind from dawn to dusk recording the activities of each individual in a colony.

The comprehensive biology number and interdisciplinary number for prairie dogs is 599.367 Cynomys (Prairie dogs).  An example of a general work classed in 599.367 is Prairie Dogs.

The record for 599.367 Cynomys (Prairie dogs) has a footnote: "Add as instructed under 592-599."  The add table at 592-599 Specific taxonomic groups of animals makes it possible to add 1 General topics of natural history of animals and then add further as instructed:  "Add to 1 the numbers following 591 in 591.3-591.7, e.g., beneficial animals 163, marine animals 177." Thus it is possible to add notation from subdivisions of 591 Specific topics in natural history of animals to the number for prairie dogs.

Hoogland was called a "behavioral ecologist."  Browsing the Relative Index for "ecology" yields:

Ecology--animals 591.7

Browsing the Relative Index for "behavior" yields:

Behavior--animals 591.5

At 591 Specific topics in natural history of animals is a table of preference in which

Behavior 591.5

appears above

Animal ecology, animals characteristic of specific environments 591.7

Hence we might expect works by a behavioral ecologist to be classed with behavior rather than ecology.  That seems to fit the specific report from Hoogland given in another article in the same issue of Science: "Prairie Dogs Disperse When All Close Kin Have Disappeared."  Here is part of the editor's summary:

Dispersal, movement away from an organism's natal site, is a critical stage in the development of a juvenile into an adult and several drivers of this process have been proposed. . . . Hoogland (p. 1205) studied populations of three species of prairie dogs over more than three decades and found that the presence of close kin in these highly social rodents actually led young animals to remain on their natal site, whereas dispersal away from it occurred almost exclusively when close female kin were absent. This suggests that sociality may in fact result in individuals remaining with their close kin in order to benefit from cooperation and that longer-distance dispersal may instead occur when the opportunity for cooperation does not exist.

Let's consider a monographic work (by C. N. Slobodchikoff and others):  Prairie Dogs: Communication and Community in an Animal Society. The work has the LCSH:

Prairie dogs
Animal communication
Social behavior in animals

The work is classed in 599.367156 Behavior relating to life cycle in prairie dogs (built with 599.367 Cynomys [Prairie dogs] plus 1 General topics of natural history of animals plus 56 from 591.56 Behavior relating to life cycle).  At 591.56 is a class-here note: "Class here . . .  social behavior . . . ."  Also at 591.56 is a see reference: "For communication, see 591.59."  Since this work treats more aspects of social behavior than just communication, notation from the implied comprehensive number 591.56 is used to build the DDC number for the work instead of notation from 591.59 Communication.  Here is how the number building process looks with the WebDewey number building tool:

Inflammation

A special section on inflammation in the 11 January 2013 issue of Science begins with a brief description of acute inflammation like that commonly associated with an infected cut or sprained ankle--"redness, swelling, heat, pain"--but moves quickly to the section's emphasis on chronic inflammation in relation to diseases:  "This special section in Science highlights the detrimental, but also in some cases beneficial, role of inflammation in neurodegenerative disease, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome."

The DDC number 616.0473 Inflammation, a subdivision of 616.047 Symptoms and general pathological processes as problems in their own right, has much current literary warrant.  Works classed in 616.0473 Inflammation may treat both acute and chronic inflammation.  An example is Fundamentals of Inflammation. 

At 616.047 Symptoms and general pathological processes as problems in their own right are multiple class-elsewhere notes.  The notes most relevant to inflammation are these:

Class results of injuries and wounds in 617.2

Class surgical complications and sequelae in 617.919

Class symptoms and pathological processes of a specific disease or class of diseases with the disease or class of diseases, e.g., symptoms of heart diseases 616.12

Those notes have hierarchical force.  Consequently, works limited to inflammation as a result of injuries and wounds are classed in 617.22 Fever, infections, inflammation, a subdivision of 617.2 Results of injuries and wounds.  Currently, however, little monographic literature about inflammation that fits in 617.22 is being published. 

By contrast, many works are being published about inflammation in relation to specific diseases.  An example is Inflammation and Atherosclerosis, which discusses "the pathogenetic, diagnostic, preventive and possible therapeutic relevance of inflammation in atherogenesis." That work is classed with atherosclerosis in 616.136 Arteriosclerosis, which has the class-here note:  "Class here atherosclerosis."  Another example is Innate Inflammation and Stroke, which has papers from a 2010 conference entitled "Innate Inflammation as the Common Pathway of Risk Factors Leading to Transient Ischemic Attacks and Stroke: Pathophysiology and Potential Interventions."  That work is classed in 616.81 Cerebrovascular diseases, which has the class-here note "Class here stroke."