Developing an online learning community for mental health professionals and service users: a discursive analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is increasing interest in online collaborative learning tools in health education, to reduce costs, and to offer alternative communication opportunities. Patients and students often have extensive experience of using the Internet for health information and support, and many health organisations are increasingly trying out online tools, while many healthcare professionals are unused to, and have reservations about, online interaction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We ran three week-long collaborative learning courses, in which 19 mental health professionals (MHPs) and 12 mental health service users (MHSUs) participated. Data were analysed using a discursive approach to consider the ways in which participants interacted, and how this contributed to the goal of online learning about using Internet technologies for mental health practice.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>MHSUs and MHPs were able to discuss issues together, listening to the views of the other stakeholders. Discussions on synchronous format encouraged participation by service users while the MHPs showed a preference for an asynchronous format with longer, reasoned postings. Although participants regularly drew on their MHP or MHSU status in discussions, and participants typically drew on either a medical expert discourse or a "lived experience" discourse, there was a blurred boundary as participants shifted between these positions.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The anonymous format was successful in that it produced a "co-constructed asymmetry" which permitted the MHPs and MHSUs to discuss issues online, listening to the views of other stakeholders. Although anonymity was essential for this course to 'work' at all, the recourse to expert or lay discourses demonstrates that it did not eliminate the hierarchies between teacher and learner, or MHP and MHSU. The mix of synchronous and asynchronous formats helped MHSUs to contribute. Moderators might best facilitate service user experience by responding within an experiential discourse rather than an academic one.</p

Patterns and drivers of tree Mortality in Iberian Forests: climatic effects are modified by competition

Tree mortality is a key process underlying forest dynamics and community assembly. Understanding how tree mortality is driven by simultaneous drivers is needed to evaluate potential effects of climate change on forest composition. Using repeat-measure information fromc.400,000 trees from the Spanish Forest Inventory, we quantified the relative importance of tree size, competition, climate and edaphic conditions on tree mortality of 11 species, and explored the combined effect of climate and competition. Tree mortality was affected by all of these multiple drivers, especially tree size and asymmetric competition, and strong interactions between climate and competition were found. All species showed L-shaped mortality patterns (i.e. showed decreasing mortality with tree size), but pines were more sensitive to asymmetric competition than broadleaved species. Among climatic variables, the negative effect of temperature on tree mortality was much larger than the effect of precipitation. Moreover, the effect of climate (mean annual temperature and annual precipitation) on tree mortality was aggravated at high competition levels for all species, but especially for broadleaved species. The significant interaction between climate and competition on tree mortality indicated that global change in Mediterranean regions, causing hotter and drier conditions and denser stands, could lead to profound effects on forest structure and composition. Therefore, to evaluate the potential effects of climatic change on tree mortality, forest structure must be considered, since two systems of similar composition but different structure could radically differ in their response to climatic conditions

Assessing the distribution of forest ecosystem services in a highly populated Mediterranean region

Altres ajuts: FP7-Marie Curie-COFUND program of the European Commission (Grant 'Clarín' ACA17-02)Forest ecosystems provide a wide range of goods and services to society and host high levels of biodiversity. Nevertheless, forest ecosystem services (ES) are often quantified and assessed using simplified methodologies (e.g., proxy methods based exclusively on Land Use Land Cover maps) that introduce substantial uncertainty in the analysis by ignoring, for instance, the species composition and spatial configuration of the ecosystems studied. In this work we defined and calculated a set of 12 indicators of several ES for the forests of the highly populated region of Catalonia (North-eastern Iberian Peninsula). The indicators combined different sources of information such as forest surveys, ecological model predictions and official statistics, but also included additional land cover information. All ES indicators were aggregated at the municipality level to compare their values and distribution patterns. We assessed spatial trade-offs and synergies among ES, as well as their relationships with a set of socioeconomic, climatic and biodiversity variables using correlation analyses and mixed-effects models. The results suggest a clustering of provisioning and regulating ES in mountainous zones towards the North of the study area. These two types of services showed a high degree of spatial similarity and presented high positive correlations. In contrast, cultural ES showed a more scattered pattern, which included lower elevation areas in the South of the study region. Climatic conditions were the main determinants of the spatial variability in the supply of the different ES, with most indicators being positively associated with precipitation and negatively associated with temperature. In addition, biodiversity (particularly woody species richness) showed positive relations with most of these ES, while socioeconomic variables (such as population density and the percentage employment in agriculture) showed negative associations with most of them. The combination of information from different data sources (including primary data) allowed for a detailed analysis of forest ES, likely removing some of the problems derived from approaches based only on proxy methods. In addition, the use of municipalities as study unit makes results directly relevant to management and planning strategies operating at this scale (e.g., forest management and planning

Positive biodiversity-productivity relationship predominant in global forests

The biodiversity-productivity relationship (BPR) is foundational to our understanding of the global extinction crisis and its impacts on ecosystem functioning. Understanding BPR is critical for the accurate valuation and effective conservation of biodiversity. Using ground-sourced data from 777,126 permanent plots, spanning 44 countries and most terrestrial biomes, we reveal a globally consistent positive concave-down BPR, showing that continued biodiversity loss would result in an accelerating decline in forest productivity worldwide. The value of biodiversity in maintaining commercial forest productivity alone - US$166 billion to 490 billion per year according to our estimation - is more than twice what it would cost to implement effective global conservation. This highlights the need for a worldwide reassessment of biodiversity values, forest management strategies, and conservation priorities.Peer Reviewe

El Inventario Ecológico y Forestal de Catalunya y su consulta mediante la palicación MiraBosc "on-line"

El Inventario Ecológico y Forestal de Catalunya (IEFC, http://www.creaf.uab.es/iefc), que el CREAF llevó a cabo en el período 1988-98, representó una contribución metodológica a los inventarios forestales nacionales, ya que, además de las variables habituales incorporó otras nuevas como: la biomasa arbórea de ramas, hojas y aérea total, la concentración y la cantidad de nutrientes en las distintas fracciones aéreas del árbol, la vida media de las hojas, el índice de área foliar, la estructura y composición del sotobosque o los modelos de combustible y de inflamabilidad. El IEFC ha sido un inventario innovador, también en lo que respecta a la transferencia de la información a la sociedad. Las tradicionales publicaciones en forma de libros han ido acompañadas de versiones digitales de acceso libre y gratuito, que permiten una consulta mucho más ágil de la información y se ha desarrollado una aplicación, MiraBosc on-line (http://natura.creaf.uab.es/mirabosc/), que permite realizar consultas en tiempo real sobre la base de datos del IEFC desde cualquier ordenador conectado a Internet. En solo tres pasos y mediante sencillos menús se puede obtener información relativa a parcelas de muestreo, tarifas de cubicación, dasometría o indicadores dendrométricos; escogiendo el ámbito geográfico, las especies y el nivel de protección del suelo

Aplicación del modelo GOTILWA+ para el analisis de los efectos del cambio climático y la gestión forestal en el balance de carbono y agua en los bosques

El análisis de los efectos del cambio climático en los bosques requiere herramientas capaces de describir las relaciones entre el ambiente y el crecimiento de los árboles, así como el efecto de la gestión sobre el crecimiento. Los modelos son herramientas útiles para ello. GOTILWA+ es un modelo funcional que simula el crecimiento forestal, los flujos y balances de agua y carbono, para distintos tipos de bosque teniendo en cuenta las condiciones ambientales, la fisiología y la estructura del ecosistema. El modelo se ha aplicado en proyectos europeos que evalúan la respuesta de los ecosistemas forestales al cambio global: el proyecto ATEAM, centrado en la vulnerabilidad al cambio global de los ecosistemas europeos, y el proyecto SilviStrat, que pone el énfasis en las estrategias adaptativas de la gestión forestal al cambio climático. Los resultados de estos experimentos de simulación a gran escala aportan información sobre las tendencias futuras en el funcionamiento y estructura de los bosques europeos. En general se observa un comportamiento favorable para el crecimiento de los bosques, especialmente, en las zonas de mayor disponibilidad hídrica. Este efecto positivo se sostiene hasta mediados del siglo XXI. En cambio, las condiciones proyectadas por los modelos de cambio climático y las simuladas por GOTILWA+ indican que a partir de la segunda mitad de siglo las condiciones pueden ser más adversas para la fijación y retención de carbono y agua en los bosques