Legal frameworks for unique ecosystems – how can the EPBC Act offsets policy address the impact of development on seagrass?

Environmental or biodiversity offset policies allow for impacts occurring at one site to be offset through activities at another site. The federal government has recently released a policy for offsetting the impacts of activities approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). The EPBC Act policy can be used to offset impacts on terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and one of the first applications of the policy has been to offset impacts on seagrass meadows at risk due to the Abbot Point coal terminal expansion. The significant ecological differences between terrestrial and marine ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows, require different management approaches to ensure that impacts are offset. This article analyses the EPBC Act policy to determine whether it adequately caters for offsetting impacts on marine ecosystems, with seagrass used as an example. It concludes with recommendations for policy change directed at ensuring that the unique characteristics of seagrass ecosystems are considered in offset policies

Integrated stratigraphy of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Upper Jurassic) based on exposures and boreholes in south Dorset, UK

For the purposes of a high-resolution multi-disciplinary study of the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation, two boreholes were drilled at Swanworth Quarry and one at Metherhills, south Dorset, UK. Together, the cores represent the first complete section through the entire formation close to the type section. We present graphic logs that record the stratigraphy of the cores, and outline the complementary geophysical and analytical data sets (gamma ray, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon, carbonate, [delta]13Corg). Of particular note are the new borehole data from the lowermost part of the formation which does not crop out in the type area. Detailed logs are available for download from the Kimmeridge Drilling Project web-site at http://kimmeridge.earth.ox.ac.uk/. Of further interest is a mid-eudoxus Zone positive shift in the [delta]13Corg record, a feature that is also registered in Tethyan carbonate successions, suggesting that it is a regional event and may therefore be useful for correlation. The lithostratigraphy of the cores has been precisely correlated with the nearby cliff section, which has also been examined and re-described. Magnetic-susceptibility and spectral gamma-ray measurements were made at a regular spacing through the succession, and facilitate core-to-exposure correlation. The strata of the exposure and core have been subdivided into four main mudrock lithological types: (a) medium-dark–dark-grey marl; (b) medium-dark–dark grey–greenish black shale; (c) dark-grey–olive-black laminated shale; (d) greyish-black–brownish-black mudstone. The sections also contain subordinate amounts of siltstone, limestone and dolostone. Comparison of the type section with the cores reveals slight lithological variation and notable thickness differences between the coeval strata. The proximity of the boreholes and different parts of the type section to the Purbeck–Isle of Wight Disturbance is proposed as a likely control on the thickness changes

Dissociated Grey Matter Changes with Prolonged Addiction and Extended Abstinence in Cocaine Users

Extensive evidence indicates that current and recently abstinent cocaine abusers compared to drug-naïve controls have decreased grey matter in regions such as the anterior cingulate, lateral prefrontal and insular cortex. Relatively little is known, however, about the persistence of these deficits in long-term abstinence despite the implications this has for recovery and relapse. Optimized voxel based morphometry was used to assess how local grey matter volume varies with years of drug use and length of abstinence in a cross-sectional study of cocaine users with various durations of abstinence (1–102 weeks) and years of use (0.3–24 years). Lower grey matter volume associated with years of use was observed for several regions including anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus and insular cortex. Conversely, higher grey matter volumes associated with abstinence duration were seen in non-overlapping regions that included the anterior and posterior cingulate, insular, right ventral and left dorsal prefrontal cortex. Grey matter volumes in cocaine dependent individuals crossed those of drug-naïve controls after 35 weeks of abstinence, with greater than normal volumes in users with longer abstinence. The brains of abstinent users are characterized by regional grey matter volumes, which on average, exceed drug-naïve volumes in those users who have maintained abstinence for more than 35 weeks. The asymmetry between the regions showing alterations with extended years of use and prolonged abstinence suggest that recovery involves distinct neurobiological processes rather than being a reversal of disease-related changes. Specifically, the results suggest that regions critical to behavioral control may be important to prolonged, successful, abstinence

1943: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Delivered in the Auditorium of Abilene Christian College February, 1943 Price: $1.00 FIRM FOUNDATION PUBLISHING HOUSE Austin, Texas Copyright, 1943 By Firm Foundation Publishing House Austin, Texa

NOTCH3 variants are more common than expected in the general population and associated with stroke and vascular dementia: an analysis of 200 000 participants

Background: Cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variants identical to those causing the rare monogenic form of stroke, CADASIL (cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy), have been reported more common than expected in the general population, but their clinical significance and contribution to stroke and dementia risk in the community remain unclear. Methods: Cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variants were identified in UK Biobank whole-exome sequencing data (N=200 632). Frequency of stroke, vascular dementia and other clinical features of CADASIL, and MRI white matter hyperintensity volume were compared between variant carriers and non-carriers. MRIs from those with variants were visually rated, each matched with three controls. Results: Of 200 632 participants with exome sequencing data available, 443 (~1 in 450) carried 67 different cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variants. After adjustment for various covariates, NOTCH3 variant carriers had increased risk of stroke (OR: 2.33, p=0.0004) and vascular dementia (OR: 5.00, p=0.007), and increased white matter hyperintensity volume (standardised difference: 0.52, p<0.001) and white matter ultrastructural damage on diffusion MRI (standardised difference: 0.72, p<0.001). On visual analysis of MRIs from 47 carriers and 148 matched controls, variants were associated with presence of lacunes (OR: 5.97, p<0.001) and cerebral microbleeds (OR: 4.38, p<0.001). White matter hyperintensity prevalence was most increased in the anterior temporal lobes (OR: 7.65, p<0.001) and external capsule (OR: 13.32, p<0.001). Conclusions: Cysteine-changing NOTCH3 variants are more common in the general population than expected from CADASIL prevalence and are risk factors for apparently ‘sporadic’ stroke and vascular dementia. They are associated with MRI changes of small vessel disease, in a distribution similar to that seen in CADASIL

Ethics, politics and embodied imagination in crafting scientific knowledge

This article explores ‘research-as-craft’ as a sensitizing concept for disclosing the presence of ethics and politics, as well as embodiment and imagination, in the doing and representation of scientific activity. Routinely unnoticed, marginalized or suppressed in methodology sections of articles and methodology textbooks, research-as-craft gestures towards messy, tacit, uncertain, yet rarely thematized, practices that are central to getting science done. To acknowledge and address the significance of research-as-craft in knowledge production, we show how it relates to three forms of reflexivity – constitutive, epistemic and disruptive. Through this we demonstrate the craftiness that is required when struggling with the indeterminacy that is endemic to the production and communication of scientific knowledge. By showing how empirical situations require imaginative interpretation by embodied researchers, we argue that our conception of research-as-craft facilitates appreciation of scientific inquiry as an indexical activity that involves the crafted object and the researcher in an ethico-political process of co-constituting knowledge

Multiple Dimensions of the Moral Majority Platform: Shifting Interest Group Coalitions

The issues raised by the New Political Right and the Moral Majority have overlapped in recent political history. Researchers have assumed that a single additive scale across conservative issues can identify the base of support for the Moral Majority as an organization. We examine general support for the Moral Majority separately from support for six specific issues: teaching creationism, voluntary public school prayer, military defense spending, gun control, pornography and abortion. Data are from a 1982 random sample of adult respondents from Nebraska (N = 1907). Overall, support for the Moral Majority organization is low. Discriminant analysis identifies fundamentalist and evangelical religious affiliation and Biblical literalism as independent predictors of support for the Moral Majority per se. Education increases knowledge of the organization, but does not influence support for it. Respondents with high income levels are more likely to support the Moral Majority organization. These findings contradict theories of both status politics and cultural fundamentalism. Support for the six specific platform items also varies considerably and is affected by religious conservatism and, independently, by other attitudinal and demographic indicators including age, sex, income, rural residence, education and perception of declining economic conditions. These patterns do not entirely fit the predictions of status politics or cultural fundamentalism theories. Rather, they provide evidence that distinct coalitions form on specific issues. Our conclusion is that a simple additive index of support for the Moral Majority masks these differences and oversimplifies complex patterns of coalitions in the religio-political arena

Effects of immunomodulatory drugs on depressive symptoms: A mega-analysis of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials in inflammatory disorders

Funder: GlaxoSmithKlineFunder: Janssen Research & Development, LLCAbstract: Activation of the innate immune system is commonly associated with depression. Immunomodulatory drugs may have efficacy for depressive symptoms that are co-morbidly associated with inflammatory disorders. We report a large-scale re-analysis by standardized procedures (mega-analysis) of patient-level data combined from 18 randomized clinical trials conducted by Janssen or GlaxoSmithKline for one of nine disorders (N = 10,743 participants). Core depressive symptoms (low mood, anhedonia) were measured by the Short Form Survey (SF-36) or the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and participants were stratified into high (N = 1921) versus low-depressive strata based on baseline ratings. Placebo-controlled change from baseline after 4–16 weeks of treatment was estimated by the standardized mean difference (SMD) over all trials and for each subgroup of trials targeting one of 7 mechanisms (IL-6, TNF-α, IL-12/23, CD20, COX2, BLγS, p38/MAPK14). Patients in the high depressive stratum showed modest but significant effects on core depressive symptoms (SMD = 0.29, 95% CI [0.12–0.45]) and related SF-36 measures of mental health and vitality. Anti-IL-6 antibodies (SMD = 0.8, 95% CI [0.20–1.41]) and an anti-IL-12/23 antibody (SMD = 0.48, 95% CI [0.26–0.70]) had larger effects on depressive symptoms than other drug classes. Adjustments for physical health outcome marginally attenuated the average treatment effect on depressive symptoms (SMD = 0.20, 95% CI: 0.06–0.35), but more strongly attenuated effects on mental health and vitality. Effects of anti-IL-12/23 remained significant and anti-IL-6 antibodies became a trend after controlling for physical response to treatment. Novel immune-therapeutics can produce antidepressant effects in depressed patients with primary inflammatory disorders that are not entirely explained by treatment-related changes in physical health

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Short-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and daily mortality in London, UK.

Epidemiological studies have linked daily concentrations of urban air pollution to mortality, but few have investigated specific traffic sources that can inform abatement policies. We assembled a database of >100 daily, measured and modelled pollutant concentrations characterizing air pollution in London between 2011 and 2012. Based on the analyses of temporal patterns and correlations between the metrics, knowledge of local emission sources and reference to the existing literature, we selected, a priori, markers of traffic pollution: oxides of nitrogen (general traffic); elemental and black carbon (EC/BC) (diesel exhaust); carbon monoxide (petrol exhaust); copper (tyre), zinc (brake) and aluminium (mineral dust). Poisson regression accounting for seasonality and meteorology was used to estimate the percentage change in risk of death associated with an interquartile increment of each pollutant. Associations were generally small with confidence intervals that spanned 0% and tended to be negative for cardiovascular mortality and positive for respiratory mortality. The strongest positive associations were for EC and BC adjusted for particle mass and respiratory mortality, 2.66% (95% confidence interval: 0.11, 5.28) and 2.72% (0.09, 5.42) per 0.8 and 1.0 μg/m(3), respectively. These associations were robust to adjustment for other traffic metrics and regional pollutants, suggesting a degree of specificity with respiratory mortality and diesel exhaust containing EC/BC