While the world rushed to develop treatments for COVID-19, some turned hopefully to drug repurposing (drug repositioning). However, little study has addressed issues of drug repurposing in emergency situations from a broader perspective, taking into account the social and ethical ramifications. When drug repurposing is employed in emergency situations, the fairness of resource distribution becomes an issue that requires careful ethical consideration.This paper examines the drug repurposing in emergency situations focusing on the fairness using Japanese cases. Ethical issues under these circumstances addressed by the authors include: maintaining the evidence level, integrity of clinical research ethics, and voluntary consent by original indication patients. In order to address these issues, they argue that rapid accumulation of ethically and scientifically valid evidence is required, as is obtaining information on resource quantity.

In urban landscapes, gardens provide refuges for bee diversity, but conservation potential may depend on local and landscape features. Foraging and population persistence of bee species, as well as overall pollinator community structure, may be supported by the abundance, richness, and spatial distribution of floral resources. Floral resources strongly differ in urban gardens. Using hand netting and pan traps to survey bees, we examined whether abundance, richness, and spatial distribution of floral resources, as well as ground cover and garden landscape surroundings influence bee abundance, species richness, and diversity on the central coast of California. Differences in floral abundance and spatial distribution, as well as urban cover in the landscape, predicted different bee community variables. Abundance of all bees and of honeybees (Apis mellifera) was lower in sites with more urban land cover surrounding the gardens. Honeybee abundance was higher in sites with patchy floral resources, whereas bee species richness and bee diversity was higher in sites with more clustered floral resources. Surprisingly, bee species richness and bee diversity was lower in sites with very high floral abundance, possibly due to interactions with honeybees. Other studies have documented the importance of floral abundance and landscape surroundings for bees in urban gardens, but this study is the first to document that the spatial arrangement of flowers strongly predicts bee abundance and richness. Based on these findings, it is likely that garden managers may promote bee conservation by managing for floral connectivity and abundance within these ubiquitous urban habitats.

Bulbul species (family Pycnonotidae) are important seed dispersers in Asian forests, but almost nothing is known of their movement patterns inside intact forest, which are likely to impact forest dynamics. We examined the movement patterns of the forest-dwelling puff-throated bulbul (Alophoixus pallidus) in relation to fruit productivity and distribution of fruiting trees/lianas in an evergreen forest in north-eastern Thailand. Movement patterns of 10 groups were precisely mapped by following colour-ringed individuals in each group 4 h mo−1 for 1 y. We evaluated fruit productivity and dispersion of fruiting trees/lianas based on monthly phenologies. There were clear seasonal fluctuations in fruit availability, which appeared to affect movement patterns, particularly distance moved between fruiting trees, time spent feeding and food selection. When fruit availability was low, bulbuls spent more time on average at a given food plant and moved longer distances between fruiting plants than compared with periods of higher fruit availability (low availability: 58 s, 83.2 m; high availability: 10 s, 43.4 m). This study points to the importance of seasonal availability of fruit resources on frugivore movement patterns. Seasonal dynamics of movement may be useful for understanding interactions between fruiting trees and their dispersers, and forest tree recruitment patterns.