Less government intervention in biodiversity management: risks and opportunities

n a changing global environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity conservation is likely to become increasingly important. However, with the current global financial crisis, governments are increasingly trying to stabilise economies through spending cuts aiming to reduce national deficits. Within such an economic climate, the devolution of governance through public participation is an intrinsically appealing concept. We outline a number of challenges that explain why increased participation in biodiversity management has been and may continue to be problematic. Using as a case study the local stakeholder-driven Moray Firth Seal Management Plan in Scotland, we identify four key conditions that were crucial to the successful participatory management of a biodiversity conflict: a local champion, the emergence of a crisis point, the involvement of decision-makers, and long-term financial and institutional support. Three of the four conditions point to the role of direct government involvement, highlighting the risk of devolving responsibility for biodiversity conflict management to local communities. We argue that without an informed debate, the move towards a more participatory approach could pose a danger to hard-won policy gains in relation to public participation, biodiversity conservation and conflict management

Daydream Believing: Visionary Formalism and the Constitution

The failure of traditional strands of legal formalism to provide a satisfactory account of law\u27s relation to material conditions, and its distinction from political practice, has given rise to a new variant of formalist theory: visionary formalism. In this essay, the authors examine visionary formalism through the work of one of its leading exponents, William E. Conklin. They contend that, far from rescuing legal formalism, the visionary account of constitutional adjudication put forward in Conklin\u27s recent treatise, Images of the Constitution, exposes formalism for what it is: an effort to romanticize and legitimize a peculiarly regressive mode of political practice. In the final sections of the essay, the authors provide their own account of the connections among law, politics and material conditions. They conclude that only a constitutive legal theory , embracing a critical understanding of the political nature and historical contingency of legal structures, offers any real hope of harnessing law as a progressive social instrument

Placebo Tests for Causal Inference

Placebo tests are increasingly common in applied social science research, but the methodological literature has not previously offered a comprehensive account of what we learn from them. We define placebo tests as tools for assessing the plausibility of the assumptions underlying a research design relative to some departure from those assumptions. We offer a typology of tests defined by the aspect of the research design that is altered to produce it (outcome, treatment, or population) and the type of assumption that is tested (bias assumptions or distributional assumptions). Our formal framework clarifies the extra assumptions necessary for informative placebo tests; these assumptions can be strong, and in some cases similar assumptions would justify a different procedure allowing the researcher to relax the research design's assumptions rather than test them. Properly designed and interpreted, placebo tests can be an important device for assessing the credibility of empirical research designs

Differential expression of cherry MYB10 in white and red varieties is responsible for anthocyanin levels [abstract]

PublishedPoster number 5

Dose-response between frequency of breaks in sedentary time and glucose control in type 2 diabetes: a proof of concept study

Objectives This study aimed to investigate dose-response between frequency of breaks in sedentary time and glucose control.DesignRandomised three-treatment, two-period balanced incomplete block trial.MethodsTwelve adults with type 2 diabetes (age, 60 ± 11 years; body mass index, 30.2 ± 4.7 kg/m2) participated in two of the following treatment conditions: sitting for 7 h interrupted by 3 min light-intensity walking breaks every (1) 60 min (Condition 1), (2) 30 min (Condition 2), and (3) 15 min (Condition 3). Postprandial glucose incremental area under the curves (iAUCs) and 21-h glucose total area under the curve (AUC) were measured using continuous glucose monitoring. Standardised meals were provided. Results Compared with Condition 1 (6.7 ± 0.8 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1), post-breakfast glucose iAUC was reduced for Condition 3 (3.5 ± 0.9 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1, p ˂ 0.04). Post-lunch glucose iAUC was lower in Condition 3 (1.3 ± 0.9 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1, p ˂ 0.03) and Condition 2 (2.1 ± 0.7 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1, p ˂ 0.05) relative to Condition 1 (4.6 ± 0.8 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1). Condition 3 (1.0 ± 0.7 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1, p = 0.02) and Condition 2 (1.6 ± 0.6 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1, p ˂ 0.04) attenuated post-dinner glucose iAUC compared with Condition 1 (4.0 ± 0.7 mmol L−1 × 3.5 h−1). Cumulative 10.5-h postprandial glucose iAUC was lower in Condition 3 than Condition 1 (p = 0.02). Condition 3 reduced 21-h glucose AUC compared with Condition 1 (p < 0.001) and Condition 2 (p = 0.002). However, post-breakfast glucose iAUC, cumulative 10.5-h postprandial glucose iAUC and 21-h glucose AUC were not different between Condition 2 and Condition 1 (p ˃ 0.05).Conclusions There could be dose-response between frequency of breaks in sedentary time and glucose. Interrupting sedentary time every 15 min could produce better glucose control

Patient-specific 3D printed model of biliary ducts with congenital cyst

Background: 3D printing has shown great promise in medical applications, with increasing reports in liver diseases. However, research on 3D printing in biliary disease is limited with lack of studies on validation of model accuracy. In this study, we presented our experience of creating a realistic 3D printed model of biliary ducts with congenital cyst. Measurements of anatomical landmarks were compared at different stages of model generation to determine dimensional accuracy. Methods: Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) images of a patient diagnosed with congenital cyst in the common bile duct with dilated hepatic ducts were used to create the 3D printed model. The 3D printed model was scanned on a 64-slice CT scanner using the similar abdominal CT protocol. Measurements of anatomical structures including common hepatic duct (CHD), right hepatic duct (RHD), left hepatic duct (LHD) and the cyst at left to right and anterior to posterior dimensions were performed and compared between original CT images, the standard tessellation language (STL) image and CT images of the 3D model. Results: The 3D printing model was successfully generated with replication of biliary ducts and cyst. Significant differences in measurements of these landmarks were found between the STL and the original CT images, and the CT images of the 3D printed model and the original CT images (