Seasons Out Of Balance: Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, And Sustainable Adaptation In Interior Alaska

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009Koyukon Elders of Alaska's Interior observe that "cold weather is growing old" and recent warming is contributing to a world out of balance. Alaska is among the most rapidly warming places globally, with the Interior experiencing the most pronounced warming statewide, and with significant regional-scale ecosystem services disruptions affecting subsistence hunting and harvest success. Vulnerability of individuals, households, and communities to climate change is exacerbated by rising energy costs and a regulatory system that constrains the adaptive flexibility needed to cope with impacts on livelihoods. Socioeconomic and cultural change notwithstanding, the well-being of rural native communities is still dependant on access and ability to harvest wild foods, with moose the example explored in this study. Over the last decade communities in the Koyukuk-Middle Yukon (KMY) region report an inability to satisfy their needs for harvesting moose before the hunting season closes, citing warmer falls, changing water levels, and the regulatory framework as primary causes. A combination of factors, including the complicated dual state/federal management system for wildlife and subsistence, creates uncertainties about the sustainability of moose populations and subsistence livelihoods in the region. By combining indigenous observations and understanding of climate and western social-natural sciences, this study examines the complex, multi-scaled interaction of climate change and subsistence livelihoods, with the goal of understanding vulnerability and adaptive capacity in the KMY region. This research demonstrates that a recent trend during early fall results in seasonality shifts, where September is getting warmer and wetter and, most recently, temperatures during 2005-2007 were outside the normal, expected range of variability. The regulatory system lacks the flexibility needed to provide local hunters with sufficient opportunity to harvest moose. This complex interplay of climate, agency intervention, and rural community needs, increases vulnerability because of a "closing window" during the critical fall harvest. Sustainable adaptation requires collective, strategic action such as "in-season" management. It is argued that this approach will more effectively respond to climate variability, and provide the necessary venue wherein wildlife management includes climate science with the human dimensions of subsistence. It is further argued that new research initiatives will build social and institutional capital between the local hunters and agency managers

In Minnesota, reforms to post-release supervision for those leaving prison have been a cost-effective solution

In Minnesota, corrections authorities have used a program known as intensive supervised release (ISR) to monitor some of those who leave prison in the state. In new research Grant Duwe and Susan McNeeley examine the effects of recent reforms to the program which take into account the risk of reoffending by those released. They find that, compared to standard supervision, the new program reduced reoffending, and was cost-effective

Group B Streptococcus Meningitis Following Elective Termination of Pregnancy: Two Case Reports

Background: Although maternal group B streptococcus (GBS) infections are common, serious infections are rare with prompt diagnosis and treatment. We present 2 cases of GBS meningitis occurring 3 and 10 days after elective abortion. In the first patient, GBS meningitis was definitely related to the elective termination. In the second patient, however, no evidence for a causal relationship could be established and can only be presumed

Let’s Play Melodrama

Melodrama is a show of emotions. It is a question of heart, in a mixture of feelings for the audience. In my 40 years of work as an actor, I am fascinated by this form of art: it is a sort of game between performers with a very accessible style for the people. Probably, this is the secret of its worldwidesuccess

Preparing for Commedia dell’Arte

Commedia dell’Arte comes alive when played passionately by characters with an unquenchable need. Commedia is a theatre of contrasts. It moves from Order to Disorder, Chaos, Disaster and back to Order and a Happy Ending. Masks and improvisational play distinguish Commedia from other theatre forms, and the spectacular nature of each character’s play. Commedia dell’Arte is alive today because audiences see themselves on stage dealing with the fools they meet daily. It will never die as long as their are great masters like Carlo Mazzone-Clementi, Giovanni Fusetti and Antonio Fava to share the form, and fools to poke fun at in the world

Playing Commedia #2

Commedia dell’Arte is a sort of spiritual need for me. In my 40 years of work as an “actor/person”(because each actor is a unique person actor),I always discover its vitality, delightful poetry and wisdom

Tumor Vascular Permeability to a Nanoprobe Correlates to Tumor-Specific Expression Levels of Angiogenic Markers

© 2009 Karathanasis et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0005843Background. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-2 is the major mediator of the mitogenic, angiogenic, and vascular hyperpermeability effects of VEGF on breast tumors. Overexpression of VEGF and VEGF receptor-2 is associated with the degree of pathomorphosis of the tumor tissue and unfavorable prognosis. In this study, we demonstrate that non-invasive quantification of the degree of tumor vascular permeability to a nanoprobe correlates with the VEGF and its receptor levels and tumor growth. Methodology/Principal Findings. We designed an imaging nanoprobe and a methodology to detect the intratumoral deposition of a 100 nm-scale nanoprobe using mammography allowing measurement of the tumor vascular permeability in a rat MAT B III breast tumor model. The tumor vascular permeability varied widely among the animals. Notably, the VEGF and VEGF receptor-2 gene expression of the tumors as measured by qRT-PCR displayed a strong correlation to the imaging-based measurements of vascular permeability to the 100 nm-scale nanoprobe. This is in good agreement with the fact that tumors with high angiogenic activity are expected to have more permeable blood vessels resulting in high intratumoral deposition of a nanoscale agent. In addition, we show that higher intratumoral deposition of the nanoprobe as imaged with mammography correlated to a faster tumor growth rate. This data suggest that vascular permeability scales to the tumor growth and that tumor vascular permeability can be a measure of underlying VEGF and VEGF receptor-2 expression in individual tumors. Conclusions/Significance. This is the first demonstration, to our knowledge, that quantitative imaging of tumor vascular permeability to a nanoprobe represents a form of a surrogate, functional biomarker of underlying molecular markers of angiogenesi