HOW CONTEXT AFFECTS UNCERTAINTY DISCLOSURE AND COMMUNICATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT: A CASE STUDY OF ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN NORTHERN ALBERTA

This study investigates practices of uncertainty consideration, avoidance, and disclosure in Canadian environmental assessment (EA), namely within the context of social, political, economic, and/or environmental project conditions surrounding the Joslyn North Oil Sands Mine development project in northeastern Alberta. Since EA is used to predict future impacts, some uncertainty is inherent and unavoidable; however, uncertainty is not always considered or communicated. To investigate how contextual dynamics influence uncertainty consideration and acknowledgement in Canadian EA, stakeholder views on were explored using semi-structured interviews. Nineteen interviews were performed with key project informants including practitioners, reviewers, panel members, interveners, and consultants. Results indicate there are significant uncertainties about the project emanating from both the environmental impact statement and wider regulatory process. Factors contributing to uncertainty specific to the ‘internal’ EA process include: varying perspectives among those involved in the EA; language used in the assessment and the dissemination of information; use of professional judgment in lieu of sufficient data; the lack of complete baseline data, and unclear terms of reference. Aspects of the assessment that people were most uncertain about were: cumulative effects assessment; species at risk; critical habitat; and setback distances (i.e., wildlife buffers) and corridors around the Ells River Valley. ‘External’ factors contributing to uncertainties in the Joslyn North mine case include a generally low level of confidence in the Alberta EA approval system; deficiency of integrating TEK in assessments; policy limitations (i.e., jurisdictional restrictions for reviewer inquiry); the absence of measureable thresholds and criteria in monitoring and mitigation plans; and concerns about the relationship among the federal and provincial regulating bodies and industry. Contextual factors such as the dynamics of the stakeholder relationships (i.e., change in project operators) heavily influenced uncertainty disclosure, consideration, and avoidance practices in the Joslyn North case. Research yielded that much of the uncertainty was indeed disclosed, but at times downplayed, and addressing or truly considering uncertainties was avoided so projects appear to be socially, environmentally and politically palatable. Recommendations to improve uncertainty communication are provided to support better decision-making in EA. These include the following: developing a common understanding of the main project uncertainties within the realm of the EA system, and therefore able to be influenced though the EA process; creating and using measurable criteria to better prioritize uncertainties; bringing uncertainty communication to the forefront of the EA and regulatory process dialogues; and working toward closing information and knowledge gaps by pinpointing major and/or commonly held uncertainties and tackling these before addressing other uncertainties. An idea presenting the locus of uncertainty to help address internal sources of uncertainty with in EA stakeholder influence is presented

Virtue Ethics: Analysing emotions in a police interview with a crime suspect

Justice goes some way to being served when statements from police interviews with suspects are admissible as evidence in court. Admissible evidence confirms that the police have worked within legal constraints and satisfied universal ethical principles that appear in the police code of conduct. Conversely, when police behave improperly and an accused person walks free, police authorities have needed to placate an outraged public by promising reforms. This article explores sections of Arthurs’ case to illustrate differences between legal and illegal police conduct when interviewing a murder suspect. Parts of the interview were admissible as legal evidence; the majority was not. This article then considers the practical relevance of ethical constraints formalized as universal moral principles in the police code of conduct. It suggests that Aristotle’s virtue ethics may be a more appropriate ethical response than referring to abstract moral principles in analysing police/suspect interviews. The article concludes by calling for police to include virtue ethics as part of conversation management strategies when analysing police/suspect interviews

Lesson plans to stimulate beginning creative writing in grades three, four, and five

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Emotional eating and instructed food-cue processing in adolescents: an ERP study

We examined the P3 (250-500ms) and Late Positive Potential (LPP; 500-2000ms) event-related potentials (ERPs) to food vs. nonfood cues among adolescents reporting on emotional eating (EE) behavior. Eighty-six adolescents 10-17 years old were tested using an instructed food versus nonfood cue viewing task (imagine food taste) during high-density EEG recording. Self-report data showed that EE increased with age in girls, but not in boys. Both P3 and LPP amplitudes were greater for food vs. nonfood cues (food-cue bias). Exploratory analyses revealed that, during the LPP time period, greater EE was associated with a more positive food-cue bias in the fronto-central region. This heightened fronto-central food-cue bias LPP is in line with a more activated prefrontal attention system. The results suggest that adolescents with higher EE may engage more top-down cognitive resources to regulate their automatic emotional response to food cues, and/or they may exhibit greater reward network activation to food cues than do adolescents with lower EE, even in the absence of an emotional mood induction

Exploring patient characteristics and barriers to Hepatitis C treatment in patients on opioid substitution treatment (OST) attending a community based fibro-scanning clinic.

Background and Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major public health issue. There is substandard uptake in HCV assessment and treatment among people who inject drugs (PWID). Community fibroscanning is used to assess disease severity and target treatment. Methods: A survey was administered to a cohort of chronically HCV infected patients attending a community fibroscanning clinic. Questions targeted diagnosis of HCV, suitability, willingness and barriers to engagement in treatment. Descriptive and regression analysis, with thematic analysis of open-ended data was conducted. Results: There was high acceptance of community fibroscanning among this cohort with over 90% (68) attending. High levels of unemployment (90%) and homelessness (40%) were identified. Most patients were on methadone treatment and had been HCV infected for greater than 10 years with length of time since HCV diagnosis being significantly longer in patients with fibroscan scores > 8.5 kPa (P = 0.016). With each unit increase in methadone dose, the odds of the >8.5 fibroscan group increased by 5.2%. Patient identified barriers to engagement were alcohol and drug use, fear of HCV treatment and liver biopsy, imprisonment, distance to hospital and early morning appointments. Conclusion: The study highlights the usefulness of community fibroscanning. Identifying barriers to treatment in this cohort affords an opportunity to increase the treatment uptake. The availability of afternoon clinics and enhanced prison linkage are warranted

Deoxycholate, an Endogenous Cytotoxin/Genotoxin, Induces the Autophagic Stress-Survival Pathway: Implications for Colon Carcinogenesis

We report that deoxycholate (DOC), a hydrophobic bile acid associated with a high-fat diet, activates the autophagic pathway in non-cancer colon epithelial cells (NCM-460), and that this activation contributes to cell survival. The DOC-induced increase in autophagy was documented by an increase in autophagic vacuoles (detected using transmission electron microscopy, increased levels of LC3-I and LC3-II (western blotting), an increase in acidic vesicles (fluorescence spectroscopy of monodansycadaverine and lysotracker red probes), and increased expression of the autophagic protein, beclin-1 (immunohistochemistry/western blotting). The DOC-induced increase in beclin-1 expression was ROS-dependent. Rapamycin (activator of autophagy) pre-treatment of NCM-460 cells significantly (P < .05) decreased, and 3-MA (inhibitor of autophagy) significantly (P < .05) increased the cell loss caused by DOC treatment, alone. Rapamycin pre-treatment of the apoptosis-resistant colon cancer cell line, HCT-116RC (developed in our laboratory), resulted in a significant decrease in DOC-induced cell death. Bafilomycin A1 and hydroxychloroquine (inhibitors of the autophagic process) increased the DOC-induced percentage of apoptotic cells in HCT-116RC cells. It was concluded that the activation of autophagy by DOC has important implications for colon carcinogenesis and for the treatment of colon cancer in conjunction with commonly used chemotherapeutic agents

Maspin is a deoxycholate-inducible, anti-apoptotic stress-response protein differentially expressed during colon carcinogenesis

Increased maspin expression in the colon is related to colon cancer risk and patient survival. Maspin is induced by the hydrophobic bile acid, deoxycholate (DOC), which is an endogenous carcinogen and inducer of oxidative stress and DNA damage in the colon. Persistent exposure of colon epithelial cells, in vitro, to high physiologic levels of DOC results in increased constitutive levels of maspin protein expression associated with the development of apoptosis resistance. When an apoptosis-resistant colon epithelial cell line (HCT-116RC) developed in the authors’ laboratory was treated with a maspin-specific siRNA probe, there was a statistically significant increase in apoptosis compared to treatment with an siRNA control probe. These results indicate, for the first time, that maspin is an anti-apoptotic protein in the colon. Immunohistochemical evaluation of maspin expression in human colonic epithelial cells during sporadic colon carcinogenesis (131 human tissues evaluated) indicated a statistically significant increase in maspin protein expression beginning at the polyp stage of carcinogenesis. There was no statistically significant difference in maspin expression between hyperplastic/adenomatous polyps and colonic adenocarcinomas. The absence of “field defects” in the non-neoplastic colonic mucosa of patients with colonic neoplasia indicates that maspin may drive the growth of tumors, in part, through its anti-apoptotic function

Salinity and temperature affect the symbiont profile and host condition of Florida USA blue crabs Callinectes sapidus

Subtropical Florida blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, exhibit differing life history traits compared to their temperate counterparts, likely influencing symbiont infection dynamics. Little information exists for Florida C. sapidus symbiont profiles, their distribution among various habitats, and influence on crab condition. Using histopathology, genomics, and transmission electron microscopy, we describe the first symbiont profiles for Florida C. sapidus occupying freshwater to marine habitats. Twelve symbiont groups were identified from 409 crabs including ciliophorans, digenean, microsporidian, Haplosporidia, Hematodinium sp., Nematoda, filamentous bacteria, gregarine, Callinectes sapidus nudivirus, Octolasmis sp., Cambarincola sp., and putative microcell. Overall, 78% of C. sapidus were documented with one or more symbiont groups demonstrating high infection rates in wild populations. Environmental variables water temperature and salinity explained 48% of the variation in symbiont groups among Florida habitats, and salinity was positively correlated with C. sapidus symbiont diversity. This suggests freshwater C. sapidus possess fewer symbionts and represent healthier individuals compared to saltwater populations. Crab condition was examined using the reflex action mortality predictor (RAMP) to determine if reflex impairment could be linked to symbiont prevalence. Symbionts were found positively correlated with crab condition, and impaired crabs were more likely to host symbionts, demonstrating symbiont inclusion may boost predictive ability of the RAMP application. The microsporidian symbiont group had a particularly strong effect on C. sapidus reflex response, and impairment was on average 1.57 times higher compared to all other symbiont groups. Our findings demonstrate the importance of considering full symbiont profiles and their associations with a spatially and temporally variable environment to fully assess C. sapidus population health.</p

Improved nuclear localization of DNA-binding polyamides

Regulation of endogenous genes by DNA-binding polyamides requires effective nuclear localization. Previous work employing confocal microscopy to study uptake of fluorophore-labeled polyamides has demonstrated the difficulty of predicting a priori the nuclear uptake of a given polyamide. The data suggest that dye identity influences uptake sufficiently such that a dye-conjugate cannot be used as a proxy for unlabeled analogs. Polyamides capable of nuclear localization unaided by fluorescent dyes are desirable due to size and other limitations of fluorophores. Recently, a polyamide-fluorescein conjugate targeted to the hypoxia response element (HRE) was found to inhibit vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in cultured HeLa cells. The current study uses inhibition of VEGF expression as a biological read-out for effective nuclear localization of HRE-targeted polyamides. We synthesized a focused library of non-fluorescent, HRE-targeted polyamides in which the C-terminus ‘tail’ has been systematically varied. Members of this library bind the HRE with affinities comparable or superior to that of the fluorescein-labeled analog. Although most library members demonstrate modest or no biological activity, two non-fluorescent polyamides are reported with activity rivaling that of the previously reported fluorescein-labeled polyamide. We also show evidence that promoter occupancy by HIF-1, the transcription factor that binds the HRE, is inhibited by HRE-targeted polyamides