Perceived Impact of Non-contact Boxing on Daily Life and Occupational Participation at Home Among Individuals with Parkinson\u27s Disease

The aim of this project was to determine whether individuals with Parkinson\u27s disease perceive an impact on their daily life and occupational participation at home secondary to participation in non-contact boxing. Semi-structured open-ended interview questions were conducted with 17 participants (3 female) who have been diagnosed with Parkinson\u27s disease for(i.e., self-care, home and health maintenance, sleep, intimacy, social and leisure interests, etc.) in the home environment. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Data analysis derived three overarching themes including psychological benefits, sense of community, and framework to develop routines. Subsequent research exploring how non-contact boxing directly impacts specific occupations completed in the home environment would further support this study

Population ecology and conservation of red-billed choughs in Scotland. Final report on Knowledge Transfer Project

This report summarises the results of a Knowledge Transfer Research Project that was undertaken by Dr Jane Reid (University of Aberdeen), Professor Pat Monaghan, (University of Glasgow), Dr Eric and Mrs Sue Bignal (Scottish Chough Study Group) and Dr Davy McCracken (Scottish Agricultural College). Dr Maria Bogdanova was employed as the postdoctoral research assistant on the project. The work was carried out in partnership with Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). Funding was provided by a Knowledge Transfer Grant from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, PIs P. Monaghan & J. Reid), with matching partnership funding and in-kind support from SNH and RSPB. The overall aims of the project were to develop the scientific understanding of the population ecology of choughs on Islay, and to use this understanding to inform the development of appropriate conservation strategies and policies. The project built on existing long-term research on Islay’s choughs. It involved further analysis of long-term data, plus two years of intensive fieldwork designed to answer specific questions. The work aimed primarily to understand the ecology of choughs in their sub-adult years (ie, from fledging to breeding age). Survival from fledging to breeding is a key factor in causing population change. However, relatively little was previously known about the behaviour and ecology of choughs during this time. This report provides an overview of the results of the scientific study and focuses on presenting the scientific evidence on which resulting recommendations for chough conservation management on Islay are based. The report is written with the intention of presenting the results of the data analyses, and the rationale underlying those analyses, in a way that is accessible to non-specialists. Further details of analyses and technicalities are provided in published, peer-reviewed papers and/or are available on request. The report provides information that will be of use to policy makers and conservation practitioners, and also highlights topics where further research is required before informed management decisions can be taken

Re-assessing Agrarian Policy and Practice in Local Environmental Management: The Case of Beef Cattle

There are policy pressures to make agriculture more environmentally sustainable and to give a more local expression to agri-environmental priorities. This paper considers these moves, with particular reference to the beef sector, and speculates on the further policy responses required to facilitate benign local agri-environmental management. The UK beef sector is characterized by its complexity and diversity but four major systems can be identified operating at varying levels of intensity. Of these, suckler herds and grass-rearing systems have long been associated with high natural value forms of agricultural land management. Many of the cherished habitats and landscapes of the UK are dependent upon grazing for their ecological and amenity value. However a combination of the BSE crisis, the strength of sterling and the recent Foot & Mouth epidemic threatens the sustainability of these high nature value grazing systems. The importance of grazing to fifty selected Sites of Special Scientific Interest is highlighted in the paper. Survey work identified a wide range of systems to be particularly vulnerable to changes in profitability in the beef sector, including: coastal grazing marsh, wet acidic grassland / marshland, upland moor and heath, calcareous grassland and neutral grassland. To maintain these systems requires agricultural policy to be more sensitive to local conditions than appears currently to be the case. There is little policy support for beef farmers in a regional context, still less giving special prominence to those farming within particular biotopes. Nor has there been sufficient policy encouragement to markets for traditional and local beef breeds. The continuing pressure for CAP reform offers further opportunity for policies to be devolved to regions and localities

Within-year and among-year variation in impacts of targeted conservation management on juvenile survival in a threatened population

Acknowledgements We thank all Islay landowners and farmers who allowed access to nest sites and supported supplementary feeding, especially Donald Jones and Robert and Tom Epps, and everyone who contributed to fieldwork and data collection. We thank NatureScot for funding supplementary feeding, led by Rae McKenzie, Jess Shaw and Des Thompson, and Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for logistic support. This work was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council iCASE studentship (NE/P009719/1) with NatureScot, and the Scottish Government’s 2011-2016 and 2016-2021 Strategic Research Programmes. Open access via Wiley agreement.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Perceived Impact of Non-contact Boxing on Daily Life and Occupational Participation at Home Among Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease

The aim of this project was to determine whether individuals with Parkinson\u27s disease perceive an impact on their daily life and occupational participation at home secondary to participation in non-contact boxing. Semi-structured open-ended interview questions were conducted with 17 participants (3 female) who have been diagnosed with Parkinson\u27s disease for(i.e., self-care, home and health maintenance, sleep, intimacy, social and leisure interests, etc.) in the home environment. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. Data analysis derived three overarching themes including psychological benefits, sense of community, and framework to develop routines. Subsequent research exploring how non-contact boxing directly impacts specific occupations completed in the home environment would further support this study.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonespring2020/1019/thumbnail.jp

Integrating advances in population and evolutionary ecology with conservation strategy through long-term studies of red-billed choughs

Acknowledgements The long-term study could not have been achieved without long-term support from numerous people, including Islay farmers and land-owners who facilitated access to nest sites and observation locations; all current and previous members of the Scottish Chough Forum; and NatureScot and RSPB (summarised in Appendix S2). We particularly thank Rae McKenzie of NatureScot, without whose enthusiasm and willingness to engage with apparently abstract ideas we would likely never have got beyond phase 1. Aspects of the work were funded by Natural Environment Research Council, NatureScot, University of Aberdeen, University of Glasgow, RSPB, Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme, Scotland’s Rural College, Killam Trusts and the Royal Society (details in Appendix S2). We thank David Jardine for his valuable contributions, and Rae McKenzie, Jess Shaw and Morven Laurie (NatureScot), and Jen Smart, Gillian Gilbert, Jack Fleming and Paul Walton (RSPB) for commenting on a manuscript draft.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Estimating demographic contributions to effective population size in an age-structured wild population experiencing environmental and demographic stochasticity

We thank everyone who helped with fieldwork on Islay, in particular Sue Bignal and Pat Monaghan, as well as all land-owners and farmers who allowed access to nest sites. We thank Bernt-Erik Sӕther, Steinar Engen and Henrik Jensen for their generous help and discussions. AET was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and Scottish Natural Heritage. JMR was supported by the European Research Council.Peer reviewedPostprin

Conserving socio-ecological landscapes: An analysis of traditional and responsive management practices for floodplain meadows in England

Contemporary practice in the conservation of socio-ecological landscapes draws on both a model of responsive management, and also on ideas about historic management. This study considered what evidence might exist for the exercise of these approaches to management in the conservation of floodplain meadows in England, in order to inform understanding and knowledge of conservation management and assessment practice. Evidence for a model of responsive management was limited, with managing stakeholders often alternating between this model and an alternative approach, called here the ‘traditional management approach’, based on ideas, narratives and prescriptions of long-established land management practices. Limited monitoring and assessment appeared to undermine the former model, whilst uncertainty over past long-standing management practices undermined the latter. As a result of the relative power of conservation actors over farmers delivering site management, and their framings of meadows as ‘natural’ spaces, management tended to oscillate between aspects of these two approaches in a sometimes inconsistent manner. Conservation managers should consider the past motivating drivers and management practices that created the landscapes they wish to conserve, and bear in mind that these are necessarily implicated in aspects of the contemporary landscape value that they wish to maintain. They should ensure that assessment activity captures a broad range of indicators of site value and condition, not only biological composition, and also record data on site management operations in order to ensure management effectiveness

Long Term Variations of the Atmospheric Air Pollutants in Istanbul City

High population density and intense industrial activity has resulted in various forms of pollution in megacities. Air pollution ranks at the top of this list. This study investigated long-term changes in air pollutant parameters (SO2, CO, NO, NO2, NOx) in Istanbul City, Turkey, using data from air-quality measurement stations on the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. The results show decreases from 2002 to 2010 in the amounts of SO2 (one of the main pollutants released as a result of the burning of fossil fuels) and CO (indicative of incomplete combustion). However, NOx concentrations showed fluctuations over time, rather than a steady decline throughout the study period