Addressing Nature-Deficit Disorder Using A Multi-program Area, Multi-State Approach

Youth are spending less time outdoors compared to previous generations. Because youth spend much of their time in school, teachers can provide the critical linkages that introduce students to nature. Unfortunately, teachers often lack access to standards-based STEAM curricula focused on natural resources, do not feel comfortable taking their students outside, and may not be knowledgeable about how to incorporate nature into the classroom. Addressing the nature deficit disorder facing today’s youth and the lack of professional development for teachers requires involvement from Extension (agriculture and natural resources specialists, health and human science educators) and natural resources professionals

The Significance of African Lions for the Financial Viability of Trophy Hunting and the Maintenance of Wild Land

Recent studies indicate that trophy hunting is impacting negatively on some lion populations, notably in Tanzania. In 2004 there was a proposal to list lions on CITES Appendix I and in 2011 animal-welfare groups petitioned the United States government to list lions as endangered under their Endangered Species Act. Such listings would likely curtail the trophy hunting of lions by limiting the import of lion trophies. Concurrent efforts are underway to encourage the European Union to ban lion trophy imports. We assessed the significance of lions to the financial viability of trophy hunting across five countries to help determine the financial impact and advisability of the proposed trade restrictions. Lion hunts attract the highest mean prices (US$24,000–US$71,000) of all trophy species. Lions generate 5–17% of gross trophy hunting income on national levels, the proportional significance highest in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. If lion hunting was effectively precluded, trophy hunting could potentially become financially unviable across at least 59,538 km2 that could result in a concomitant loss of habitat. However, the loss of lion hunting could have other potentially broader negative impacts including reduction of competitiveness of wildlife-based land uses relative to ecologically unfavourable alternatives. Restrictions on lion hunting may also reduce tolerance for the species among communities where local people benefit from trophy hunting, and may reduce funds available for anti-poaching. If lion off-takes were reduced to recommended maximums (0.5/1000 km2), the loss of viability and reduction in profitability would be much lower than if lion hunting was stopped altogether (7,005 km2). We recommend that interventions focus on reducing off-takes to sustainable levels, implementing age-based regulations and improving governance of trophy hunting. Such measures could ensure sustainability, while retaining incentives for the conservation of lions and their habitat from hunting

Risk-Sensitive Resource Defense in a Territorial Reef Fish

As coral reefs are home to dense aggregations of a variety of species, aggressive territoriality is often a critical component of individual behavior. Identification and assessment of the risk posed by intruders is crucial to defending a territory, and fishes on coral reefs have been found to attend to body shape, body size, and coloration when responding to intruders. We examined the extent to which dusky damselfish (Stegastes adustus) discriminate among distinct categories of intruders by measuring the distance at which a fish attacks an intruder and the relative intensity and frequency of those attacks. We found that S. adustus discriminated among perceived threats, attacking conspecifics more intensely and more often than egg-predators and herbivores, and showing a trend of attacking those groups more often than invertebrate-feeders, which do not compete with damselfish for resources. Furthermore, territory holders attacked initial-phase wrasses from a farther distance than terminal-phase wrasses, suggesting that they can discriminate among classes of individuals within a species other than their own. Dusky damselfish thus exhibit the ability to make fine distinctions among intruders in a diverse ecosystem

Collapse of the world's largest herbivores

Large wild herbivores are crucial to ecosystems and human societies. We highlight the 74 largest terrestrial herbivore species on Earth (body mass ≥100 kg), the threats they face, their important and often overlooked ecosystem effects, and the conservation efforts needed to save them and their predators from extinction. Large herbivores are generally facing dramatic population declines and range contractions, such that ~60% are threatened with extinction. Nearly all threatened species are in developing countries, where major threats include hunting, land-use change, and resource depression by livestock. Loss of large herbivores can have cascading effects on other species including large carnivores, scavengers, mesoherbivores, small mammals, and ecological processes involving vegetation, hydrology, nutrient cycling, and fire regimes. The rate of large herbivore decline suggests that ever-larger swaths of the world will soon lack many of the vital ecological services these animals provide, resulting in enormous ecological and social costs

Sustainability and Long Term-Tenure: Lion Trophy Hunting in Tanzania

It is argued that trophy hunting of large, charismatic mammal species can have considerable conservation benefits but only if undertaken sustainably. Social-ecological theory suggests such sustainability only results from developing governance systems that balance financial and biological requirements. Here we use lion (Panthera leo) trophy hunting data from Tanzania to investigate how resource ownership patterns influence hunting revenue and offtake levels. Tanzania contains up to half of the global population of free-ranging lions and is also the main location for lion trophy hunting in Africa. However, there are concerns that current hunting levels are unsustainable. The lion hunting industry in Tanzania is run by the private sector, although the government leases each hunting block to companies, enforces hunting regulation, and allocates them a species-specific annual quota per block. The length of these leases varies and theories surrounding property rights and tenure suggest hunting levels would be less sustainable in blocks experiencing a high turnover of short-term leases. We explored this issue using lion data collected from 1996 to 2008 in the Selous Game Reserve (SGR), the most important trophy hunting destination in Tanzania. We found that blocks in SGR with the highest lion hunting offtake were also those that experienced the steepest declines in trophy offtake. In addition, we found this high hunting offtake and the resultant offtake decline tended to be in blocks under short-term tenure. In contrast, lion hunting levels in blocks under long-term tenure matched more closely the recommended sustainable offtake of 0.92 lions per 1000 km2. However, annual financial returns were higher from blocks under short-term tenure, providing $133 per km2 of government revenue as compared to$62 per km2 from long-term tenure blocks. Our results provide evidence for the importance of property rights in conservation, and support calls for an overhaul of the system in Tanzania by developing competitive market-based approaches for block allocation based on long-term tenure of ten years

Early Clinical Experiences for Second-Year Student Pharmacists at an Academic Medical Center

Objective. To examine student outcomes associated with the Student Medication and Reconciliation Team (SMART) program, which was designed to provide second-year student pharmacists at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Eshelman School of Pharmacy direct patient care experience at UNC Medical Center

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of asthma in ethnically diverse North American populations.

Asthma is a common disease with a complex risk architecture including both genetic and environmental factors. We performed a meta-analysis of North American genome-wide association studies of asthma in 5,416 individuals with asthma (cases) including individuals of European American, African American or African Caribbean, and Latino ancestry, with replication in an additional 12,649 individuals from the same ethnic groups. We identified five susceptibility loci. Four were at previously reported loci on 17q21, near IL1RL1, TSLP and IL33, but we report for the first time, to our knowledge, that these loci are associated with asthma risk in three ethnic groups. In addition, we identified a new asthma susceptibility locus at PYHIN1, with the association being specific to individuals of African descent (P = 3.9 × 10(-9)). These results suggest that some asthma susceptibility loci are robust to differences in ancestry when sufficiently large samples sizes are investigated, and that ancestry-specific associations also contribute to the complex genetic architecture of asthma

Fibrin glue and transanal rectal advancement flap for high transsphincteric perianal fistulas; is there any advantage?

BACKGROUNDS AND AIM: In recent decades, fibrin glue has appeared as an alternative treatment for high perianal fistulas. Early results seemed promising, with high success rates being reported. However, with increasing follow-up, the enthusiasm was tempered because of disappointing results. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the additional value of fibrin glue in combination with transanal advancement flap, compared to advancement flap alone, for the treatment of high transsphincteric fistulas of cryptoglandular origin. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Between January 1995 and January 2006, 127 patients were operated for high perianal fistulas with an advancement flap. After exclusion of patients with inflammatory bowel disease or HIV, 80 patients remained. A consecutive series of 26 patients had an advancement flap combined with obliteration of the fistula tract with fibrin glue. Patients were matched for prior fistula surgery, and the advancement was performed identically in all patients. In the fibrin glue group, glue was installed retrogradely in the fistula tract after the advancement was completed and the fistula tract had been curetted. RESULTS: Minimal follow-up after surgery was 13 months [median of 67 months (range, 13-127)]. The overall recurrence rate was 26% (n=21). Recurrence rates for advancement flap alone vs the combination with glue were 13% vs 56% (p=0.014) in the group without previous fistula surgery and 23% vs 41% (p=0.216) in the group with previous fistula surgery. CONCLUSION: Obliterating the fistula tract with fibrin glue was associated with worse outcome after rectal advancement flap for high perianal fistula