Challenges for Implementing an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management

The ecosystem approach is being promoted as the foundation of solutions to the unsustainability of fisheries. However, because the ecosystem approach is broadly inclusive, the science for its implementation is often considered to be overly complex and difficult. When the science needed for an ecosystem approach to fisheries is perceived this way, science products cannot keep pace with fisheries critics, thus encouraging partisan political interference in fisheries management and proliferation of “faith-based solutions. In this paper we argue that one way to effectively counter politicization of fisheries decision-making is to ensure that new ecosystem-based approaches in fisheries are viewed only as an emergent property of innovation in science and policy. We organize our essay using three major themes to focus the discussion: empirical, jurisdictional, and societal challenges. We undertake at least partial answers to the following questions: (1) has conventional fisheries management really failed?; (2) can short-comings in conventional fisheries management be augmented with new tools, such as allocation of rights?; (3) is the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) equivalent to Ecosystem-Based Management?; and (4) is restoration of degraded ecosystems a necessary component of an EAF

A web-based Alcohol Clinical Training (ACT) curriculum: Is in-person faculty development necessary to affect teaching?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Physicians receive little education about unhealthy alcohol use and as a result patients often do not receive efficacious interventions. The objective of this study is to evaluate whether a free web-based alcohol curriculum would be used by physician educators and whether in-person faculty development would increase its use, confidence in teaching and teaching itself.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Subjects were physician educators who applied to attend a workshop on the use of a web-based curriculum about alcohol screening and brief intervention and cross-cultural efficacy. All physicians were provided the curriculum web address. Intervention subjects attended a 3-hour workshop including demonstration of the website, modeling of teaching, and development of a plan for using the curriculum. All subjects completed a survey prior to and 3 months after the workshop.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of 20 intervention and 13 control subjects, 19 (95%) and 10 (77%), respectively, completed follow-up. Compared to controls, intervention subjects had greater increases in confidence in teaching alcohol screening, and in the frequency of two teaching practices – teaching about screening and eliciting patient health beliefs. Teaching confidence and teaching practices improved significantly in 9 of 10 comparisons for intervention, and in 0 comparisons for control subjects. At follow-up 79% of intervention but only 50% of control subjects reported using any part of the curriculum (p = 0.20).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In-person training for physician educators on the use of a web-based alcohol curriculum can increase teaching confidence and practices. Although the web is frequently used for disemination, in-person training may be preferable to effect widespread teaching of clinical skills like alcohol screening and brief intervention.</p

An Accurate Mass Determination for Kepler-1655b, a Moderately Irradiated World with a Significant Volatile Envelope

Funding: A.C.C. acknowledges support from STFC consolidated grant number ST/M001296/1. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant Agreement No. 313014 (ETAEARTH).We present the confirmation of a small, moderately-irradiated (F= 155±7 F⊕) Neptune with a substantial gas envelope in a P=11.8728787±0.0000085-day orbit about a quiet, Sun-like G0V star Kepler-1655. Based on our analysis of the Kepler light curve, we determined Kepler-1655b’s radius to be 2.213±0.082 R⊕. We acquired 95 high-resolution spectra with TNG/HARPS-N, enabling us to characterize the host star and determine an accurate mass for Kepler-1655b of 5.0±^3.1_2.8 M⊕ via Gaussian-process regression. Our mass determination excludes an Earth-like composition with 98% confidence. Kepler-1655b falls on the upper edge of the evaporation valley, in the relatively sparsely occupied transition region between rocky and gas-rich planets. It is therefore part of a population of planets that we should actively seek to characterize further.PostprintPeer reviewe

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

n/

Risk and resilience in gifted young people from low socio-economic backgrounds

Gifted and talented young people from low socio-economic backgrounds are consistently under-represented in gifted programmes in New Zealand schools. This chapter reports on a qualitative study that explored the lived experiences of 101 gifted New Zealand young people from low socio-economic back-grounds. An overarching question for this study was ‘What is it about gifted young people from low socio-economic backgrounds who have achieved to exceptional levels, that has enabled them to do so?’ The risk and resilience construct was used as a lens through which to explore their experiences across a range of contexts. These young people reflected on their perceptions of their giftedness and socio-economic circumstances, their childhoods and school ex-periences, and their home lives. The stories of the participants in this study in-dicated that there are particular risks associated with both giftedness and low socio-economic status, and contribute to ideas about how these young people might be more effectively supported to develop their potential

Difference in blood pressure response to ACE-Inhibitor monotherapy between black and white adults with arterial hypertension: a meta-analysis of 13 clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Among African-Americans adults, arterial hypertension is both more prevalent and associated with more complications than among white adults. Hypertension is also epidemic among black adults in sub-Saharan Africa. The treatment of hypertension among black adults may be complicated by lesser response to certain classes of anti-hypertensive agents. METHODS: We systematically searched literature for clinical trials of ACE-inhibitors among hypertensive adults comparing blood pressure response between whites and blacks. Meta-analysis was performed to determine the difference in systolic and diastolic blood pressure response. Further analysis including meta-regressions, funnel plots, and one-study-removed analyses were performed to investigate possible sources of heterogeneity or bias. RESULTS: In a meta-analysis of 13 trials providing 17 different patient groups for evaluation, black race was associated with a lesser reduction in systolic (mean difference: 4.6 mmHg (95% CI 3.5-5.7)) and diastolic (mean difference: 2.8 mmHg (95% CI 2.2-3.5)) blood pressure response to ACE-inhibitors, with little heterogeneity. Meta-regression revealed only ACE-inhibitor dosage as a significant source of heterogeneity. There was little evidence of publication bias. CONCLUSIONS: Black race is consistently associated with a clinically significant lesser reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure to ACE-inhibitor therapy in clinical trials in the USA and Europe. In black adults requiring monotherapy for uncomplicated hypertension, drugs other than ACE-inhibitors may be preferred, though the proven benefits of ACE-inhibitors in some sub-groups and the large overlap of response between blacks and whites must be remembered. These data are particularly important for interpretation of clinical drug trials for hypertensive black adults in sub-Saharan Africa and for the development of treatment recommendations in this population