Characterization of a "Low-Risk" Cohort of Gleason 7 Prostate Cancer Patients

Purpose To examine if there is a subset of men with Gleason 7 (3+4) prostate cancer who may be potential candidates for active surveillance. Materials and Methods We used the SEARCH database to identify 870 men undergoing radical prostatectomy from 2001-13 with >8 biopsy cores and complete clinical information. We compared characteristics of men who fulfilled low-risk disease criteria (clinical stage T1c/T2a; biopsy Gleason ≤6; PSA ≤10 ng/mL) with the exception of biopsy Gleason 7 (3+4) vs. men who met all 3 low-risk criteria. Logistic regression was used to test the association between biopsy Gleason and pathological features. Biochemical recurrence was examined using Cox hazards analysis. To examine whether there was a subset of men with low-volume Gleason 7 with comparable outcomes to low-risk men, we repeated all analyses limiting the percentage positive cores to ≤33% and positive cores to ≤4, ≤3, or ≤2. Results Gleason 7 low-risk men had increased risk of pathological Gleason ≥4+3 (p0.1), except higher pathological Gleason score (p<0.001). Biochemical recurrence was similar in men with Gleason 6 or Gleason 7 (3+4) (HR 1.39; p=0.254). Conclusion Among men with PSA≤10 ng/mL and clinical stage T1c/T2a, those with Gleason 7 (3+4) in ≤3 total positive cores have similar rates of adverse pathology and biochemical recurrence as men with Gleason ≤6.Master of Public Healt

Participant and Socio-Ecological Outcomes of the Hofmann Open-Water Laboratory (HOWL) Citizen Science Project

Citizen science, also known as participatory research, combines the efforts of professional researchers and community volunteers to collect data. We have established one such collaborative project in eastern North Carolina, near the 79,000-acre Hofmann Forest, called the Hofmann Open-Water Laboratory (HOWL) citizen science project. The White Oak River, New River, and Trent River all flow out of the Hofmann. The Hofmann is an ecological keystone in the region, acting as a natural filtration system for harmful runoff that occurs in the coastal plain of North Carolina. Our purposes for this study were twofold: (a) to evaluate the HOWL project by assessing the perceptions of HOWL participants and determining whether the project achieved its goals of individual development and community engagement and (b) to provide recommendations for the HOWL project as well as suggestions for other participatory research projects in their beginning phases. We interviewed 12 HOWL citizen scientists who participated in the project, and we drew two major conclusions from our research. First, we recognized that community engagement and collaboration drastically increased in rural eastern North Carolina due to the community members’ participation in water monitoring and natural resource management. Second, citizen scientists achieved their personal goals and objectives by participating in the HOWL project: Participants reported that they learned new skills, gained knowledge of scientific and research procedures, developed an attachment to their community and region, and acted as environmental stewards

Adapting Tropical Forest Policy and Practice in the Context of the Anthropocene: Opportunities and Challenges for the El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico

Tropical forest management increasingly is challenged by multiple, complex, intersecting, and in many cases unprecedented changes in the environment that are triggered by human activity. Many of these changes are associated with the Anthropocene—a new geologic epoch in which humans have become a dominating factor in shaping the biosphere. Ultimately, as human activity increasingly influences systems and processes at multiple scales, we are likely to see more extraordinary and surprising events, making it difficult to predict the future with the level of precision and accuracy needed for broad-scale management prescriptions. In this context of increasing surprise and uncertainty, learning, flexibility, and adaptiveness are essential to securing ecosystem resilience and sustainability, particularly in complex systems such as tropical forests. This article examines the experience to date with and potential for collaborative, adaptive land and resource management in the El Yunque National Forest (EYNF)—the only tropical forest in the U.S. National Forest System. The trajectory of EYNF policy and practice over time and its capacity for learning, flexibility, and adaptiveness to change and surprise are analyzed through an historical institutionalism approach. EYNF policies and practices have shifted from an early custodial approach that focused mostly on protection and prevention to a top-down, technical approach that eventually gave way to an ecosystem approach that has slowly incorporated more flexible, adaptive, and active learning elements. These shifts in EYNF management mostly have been reactive and incremental, with some rarer, rapid changes primarily in response to significant changes in national-level policies, but also to local level conditions and changes in them. Looking to the future, it seems the EYNF may be better positioned than ever before to address increasing uncertainty and surprise at multiple scales. However, it must be able to count on the resources necessary for implementing adaptive, collaborative forest management in a tropical setting and on the institutional and organizational space and flexibility to make swift adjustments or course corrections in response to system changes and surprises

Evaluations for sustainable forest management: towards an adaptive standard for the evaluation of the ecological sustainability of forest management in Costa Rica

Ilus. Tab. 28 ref. Tambi?n como: Colecci?n Manejo Diversificado de Bosques Naturales. Publicaci?n no. 26. Tambi?n edici?n en ingl?s bajo la signatura: CATIE ST IT-32

Governmental regulation and nongovernmental certification of forests in the tropics: Policy, execution, uptake, and overlap in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua

We analyzed how and why governmental forest regulation and nongovernmental forest certification in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua and their execution lead to, or fail to produce desired changes in forest owner and user behavior toward the enhanced sustainability of tropical forests. The findings confirmed not only that sufficient resources and capacity for forest policy execution are crucial for attaining policy objectives, but also that innovative arrangements for promoting, verifying, and enforcing policy compliance can compensate for limited resources and processes. Such arrangements incorporate a mixture of policy tools and actors that go beyond the traditional command-and-control approach, including the establishment of positive fiscal incentives for sustainable forest management, provision of technical assistance, participation of private-sector forest stewards, and support from nongovernmental organizations. The results also shed light on the mitigating effects of local-level inducements and constraints to governmental and nongovernmental forest policy adoption and compliance, such as forest size and composition, available resources, technical capacity, and attitudes toward forest policy and implementers.Forest regulation Forest certification Sustainable forest management Tropical forest management

Issues and Challenges of Mangrove conservation in the Anthropocene

This essay addresses the conservation issues facing mangroves in the Anthropocene, defined as the era of human domination over the world. We review the laws, policies, international agreements, and local actions that address the conservation of mangrove forests in the Neotropics and relate them to the Anthropocene. Collaboration between governments, non-governmental organizations, and communities that depend on mangroves for their livelihood will be critical in the Anthropocene. The essay also reviews recent developments in mangrove ecology and ecophysiology that enlighten how mangroves might respond to changes in temperature and rainfall, sea level rise, and other anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Mangroves in the Anthropocene will also face changes in their species composition given the current movement of mangroves species across continental barriers as a result of human activity. These trends will lead to novel mangrove forests and in some cases expand the range of mangroves worldwide. The solution to mangrove persistence in the Anthropocene is not to isolate mangroves from people, but to regulate interactions between mangroves and humans through effective management. We will also have to expand the scope of the ecological analysis of mangrove ecosystems to include the social forces converging on the mangroves through an analytical approach that has been termed Social Ecology.Este ensayo aborda los problemas de conservación que enfrentan los manglares en el Antropoceno, definido como la época de la dominación humana sobre el mundo. En él repasamos las leyes, políticas, acuerdos internacionales y las acciones locales que se ocupan de la conservación de los bosques de mangle en el Neotrópico y se relacionan con el Antropoceno. La colaboración entre gobiernos, organizaciones no gubernamentales y las comunidades que dependen de los manglares para su sustento será decisiva en el Antropoceno. El ensayo también incluye comentarios sobre los avances recientes en ecología de manglares y en ecofisiología que explican cómo los manglares podrían responder a los cambios de temperatura y precipitación, el aumento del nivel del mar y otras perturbaciones naturales y antropogénicas. Los manglares en el Antropoceno también enfrentarán a cambios en su composición de especies, dado el actual movimiento de especies de manglares a través de barreras continentales como resultado de la actividad humana. Estas tendencias conducirán a nuevas formaciones de manglares y en algunos casos ampliarán la presencia de los manglares en todo el mundo. La solución a la persistencia de manglares en el Antropoceno es no aislar a los manglares de la gente, sino regular las interacciones entre los manglares y los seres humanos a través de una gestión eficaz. También tendremos que ampliar el alcance del análisis ecológico de los ecosistemas de manglar para incluir las fuerzas sociales convergentes en los manglares a través de un enfoque analítico que se ha denominado Ecología Social