Making waves. Bridging theory and practice towards multiple stressor management in freshwater ecosystems

Embargo until February 26, 2023Despite advances in conceptual understanding, single-stressor abatement approaches remain common in the management of fresh waters, even though they can produce unexpected ecological responses when multiple stressors interact. Here we identify limitations restricting the development of multiple-stressor management strategies and address these, bridging theory and practice, within a novel empirical framework. Those critical limitations include that (i) monitoring schemes fall short of accounting for theory on relationships between multiple-stressor interactions and ecological responses, (ii) current empirical modelling approaches neglect the prevalence and intensity of multiple-stressor interactions, and (iii) mechanisms of stressor interactions are often poorly understood. We offer practical recommendations for the use of empirical models and experiments to predict the effects of freshwater degradation in response to changes in multiple stressors, demonstrating this approach in a case study. Drawing on our framework, we offer practical recommendations to support the development of effective management strategies in three general multiple-stressor scenarios.acceptedVersio

Prevalence and predictors of complementary and alternative medicine modalities in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Background & Aims The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) can interact with antiviral treatment or influence health‐seeking behaviour. We aimed to study the use of individual CAM modalities in CHB and explore determinants of use, particularly migration‐related, socio‐economic and clinical factors. Methods A total of 436 CHB outpatients who attended the Toronto Centre for Liver Disease in 2015‐2016 were included in this cross‐sectional study. Using the comprehensive I‐CAM questionnaire and health records, data were collected on socio‐demographic and clinical variables and on usage of 16 CAM modalities in the last year. Results Sixty percent of patients were male, 74% were Asian and 46% were using antiviral treatment. Three‐hundred and nine (71%) patients used CAM. Vitamin/mineral preparations (45% of patients) were most commonly used. Overall CAM use and the specific use of potentially injurious CAM, such as green tea extract (9.2%) and St. John's wort (0.2%), were not associated with liver disease severity. Female sex, family history of CHB, lower serum HBV DNA, and higher socio‐economic status were independently associated with bio‐holistic CAM use, the clinically most‐relevant CAM group (P < 0.05); ethnicity, antiviral therapy use and liver disease severity were not. Conclusions CAM use among CHB patients was extensive, especially use of vitamin and mineral preparations, but without direct influence on liver disease severity. Bio‐holistic CAM use appeared to be associated with socio‐economic status rather than with ethnicity or liver disease severity. Despite the rare use of hepatotoxins, physicians should actively inquire about it

Modes of Action of Microbially-Produced Phytotoxins

Some of the most potent phytotoxins are synthesized by microbes. A few of these share molecular target sites with some synthetic herbicides, but many microbial toxins have unique target sites with potential for exploitation by the herbicide industry. Compounds from both non-pathogenic and pathogenic microbes are discussed. Microbial phytotoxins with modes of action the same as those of commercial herbicides and those with novel modes of action of action are covered. Examples of the compounds discussed are tentoxin, AAL-toxin, auscaulitoxin aglycone, hydantocidin, thaxtomin, and tabtoxin

IL28B, HLA-C, and KIR Variants Additively Predict Response to Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection in a European Cohort: A Cross-Sectional Study

Vijayaprakash Suppiah and colleagues show that genotyping hepatitis C patients for the IL28B, HLA-C, and KIR genes improves the ability to predict whether or not patients will respond to antiviral treatment

De jure determinants of new firm formation: how the pillars of constitutions influence entrepreneurship

This paper provides empirical evidence supporting the view that constitutions are the primary and fundamental institutional determinant of entrepreneurship. It shows that some of the provisions contained in national constitutions are positively and significantly associated with a standard measure of entrepreneurial dynamics, namely the rate of new business density. Using for 115 countries a novel dataset containing the characteristics of the constitutions enacted in the world, applying an IV-GMM treatment to deal with the endogeneity of constitutional rules, and controlling for de facto variables, the paper finds that provisions about the right to conduct/establish a business, the right to strike, consumer protection, anti-corruption, and compulsory education promote higher rates of new firm formation. Contrasting results are instead obtained for provisions concerning protection of intellectual property rights

Late 1920s film theory and criticism as a test-case for Benjamin’s generalizations on the experiential effects of editing

This article investigates Walter Benjamin’s influential generalization that the effects of cinema are akin to the hyper-stimulating experience of modernity. More specifically, I focus on his oft-cited 1935/36 claim that all editing elicits shock-like disruption. First, I propose a more detailed articulation of the experience of modernity understood as hyper-stimulation and call for distinguishing between at least two of its subsets: the experience of speed and dynamism, on the one hand, and the experience of shock/disruption, on the other. Then I turn to classical film theory of the late 1920s to demonstrate the existence of contemporary views on editing alternative to Benjamin’s. For instance, whereas classical Soviet and Weimar theorists relate the experience of speed and dynamism to both Soviet and classical Hollywood style editing, they reserve the experience of shock/disruption for Soviet montage. In order to resolve the conceptual disagreement between these theorists, on the one hand, and Benjamin, on the other, I turn to late 1920s Weimar film criticism. I demonstrate that, contrary to Benjamin’s generalizations about the disruptive and shock-like nature of all editing, and in line with other theorists’ accounts, different editing practices were regularly distinguished by comparison to at least two distinct hyper-stimulation subsets: speed and dynamism, and shock-like disruption. In other words, contemporaries regularly distinguished between Soviet montage and classical Hollywood editing patterns on the basis of experiential effects alone. On the basis of contemporary reviews of city symphonies, I conclude with a proposal for distinguishing a third subset – confusion. This is an original manuscript / preprint of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Early Popular Visual Culture on 02 Aug 2016 available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17460654.2016.1199322

Jazz Convocation

List of performers and performances

Asian-Pacific consensus statement on the management of chronic hepatitis B: a 2008 update

Large amounts of new data on the natural history and treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection have become available since 2005. These include long-term follow-up studies in large community-based cohorts or asymptomatic subjects with chronic HBV infection, further studies on the role of HBV genotype/naturally occurring HBV mutations, treatment of drug resistance and new therapies. In addition, Pegylated interferon α2a, entecavir and telbivudine have been approved globally. To update HBV management guidelines, relevant new data were reviewed and assessed by experts from the region, and the significance of the reported findings were discussed and debated. The earlier “Asian-Pacific consensus statement on the management of chronic hepatitis B” was revised accordingly. The key terms used in the statement were also defined. The new guidelines include general management, special indications for liver biopsy in patients with persistently normal alanine aminotransferase, time to start or stop drug therapy, choice of drug to initiate therapy, when and how to monitor the patients during and after stopping drug therapy. Recommendations on the therapy of patients in special circumstances, including women in childbearing age, patients with antiviral drug resistance, concurrent viral infection, hepatic decompensation, patients receiving immune-suppressive medications or chemotherapy and patients in the setting of liver transplantation, are also included