Do Human Resource Departments Act as Strategic Partners? Strategic Human Capital Management Adoption by County Governments

Drawing on qualitative data from forty counties in New York and North Carolina, this article examines the adoption of strategic human capital management (SHCM) principles and practices at the county level and presents a typology of five levels of SHCM adoption. The level of SHCM implementation in a county depends on: the view of the HR function by executive county leadership, the capacity of the county to engage in strategic planning and management, and the capacity of the HR director to think strategically about the role of HR in the government. The article concludes with recommendations for practice, which focus on educating a diverse set of actors about SHCM, building executive level support, developing HR skill and competencies, and applying basic change management practices

Climate Change, Coral Reef Ecosystems, and Management Options for Marine Protected Areas

Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide place-based management of marine ecosystems through various degrees and types of protective actions. Habitats such as coral reefs are especially susceptible to degradation resulting from climate change, as evidenced by mass bleaching events over the past two decades. Marine ecosystems are being altered by direct effects of climate change including ocean warming, ocean acidification, rising sea level, changing circulation patterns, increasing severity of storms, and changing freshwater influxes. As impacts of climate change strengthen they may exacerbate effects of existing stressors and require new or modified management approaches; MPA networks are generally accepted as an improvement over individual MPAs to address multiple threats to the marine environment. While MPA networks are considered a potentially effective management approach for conserving marine biodiversity, they should be established in conjunction with other management strategies, such as fisheries regulations and reductions of nutrients and other forms of land-based pollution. Information about interactions between climate change and more “traditional” stressors is limited. MPA managers are faced with high levels of uncertainty about likely outcomes of management actions because climate change impacts have strong interactions with existing stressors, such as land-based sources of pollution, overfishing and destructive fishing practices, invasive species, and diseases. Management options include ameliorating existing stressors, protecting potentially resilient areas, developing networks of MPAs, and integrating climate change into MPA planning, management, and evaluation

Correction: Suppression of Abdominal Motor Activity during Swallowing in Cats and Humans.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0128245.]

Suppression of Abdominal Motor Activity during Swallowing in Cats and Humans.

Diseases affecting pulmonary mechanics often result in changes to the coordination of swallow and breathing. We hypothesize that during times of increased intrathoracic pressure, swallow suppresses ongoing expiratory drive to ensure bolus transport through the esophagus. To this end, we sought to determine the effects of swallow on abdominal electromyographic (EMG) activity during expiratory threshold loading in anesthetized cats and in awake-healthy adult humans. Expiratory threshold loads were applied to recruit abdominal motor activity during breathing, and swallow was triggered by infusion of water into the mouth. In both anesthetized cats and humans, expiratory cycles which contained swallows had a significant reduction in abdominal EMG activity, and a greater percentage of swallows were produced during inspiration and/or respiratory phase transitions. These results suggest that: a) spinal expiratory motor pathways play an important role in the execution of swallow, and b) a more complex mechanical relationship exists between breathing and swallow than has previously been envisioned

Microsatellite variation in marine, freshwater and anadromous fishes compared with other animals

From a total of 524 microsatellite loci considered in nearly 40 000 individuals of 78 species, freshwater fish displayed levels of population genetic variation (mean heterozygosity, h=0.46, and mean numbers of alleles per locus, a=7.5) roughly similar to those of non-piscine animals (h=0.58 and a=7.1). In contrast, local population samples of marine fish displayed on average significantly higher heterozygosities (h=0.79) and nearly three times the number of alleles per locus (a=20.6). Anadromous fish were intermediate to marine and freshwater fish (h=0.68 and a=11.3). Results parallel earlier comparative summaries of allozyme variation in marine, anadromous, and freshwater fishes and probably are attributable in part to differences in evolutionarily effective population sizes typifying species inhabiting these realms. (C) 2000 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles