A population and harvest intensity estimate for Sooty Shearwater, Puflinus griseus, on Taukihepa (Big South Cape), New Zealand

We estimated the total number of burrow entrances, chicks and total population size of the Sooty Shearwater, Puffinusgriseus, colony on Taukihepa (Big South Cape), the largest of the 36 Titi Islands where Titi (Sooty Shcarwater chicks) are harvested. Between 1999 and 2005 we surveyed six manu (family birded areas) as well as a colony in the interior forested region on the island, measuring entrance density and burrow occupancy and habitat variables, as well as recording birders' harvest intensity. We found little support for any relationship between habitat variables and entrance density on the surveyed manu. Therefore we used a detailed aerial image to map areas and extrapolate these estimates to island totals and a simple population model, incorporating known demographic parameters to calculate the total population size. We estimated that the island contains 1.67 million (95% CI: 1.47-1.88) burrow entrances and 1.12 million (0.959-1.28) breeding pairs, equating to a total of 5.31 million (95% CI: 3.98-6.77) juveniles, pre-breeders and adults associated with the island. Assuming the harvest intensity on the surveyed manu 0.18% (0.16-0.21) was similar elsewhere on the unsurveyed but harvested region of the island, we estimated that ofthe 807000 (712000-901 000) fledging chicks on the island, 137000 (105000-173000) are harvested each year. These findings highlight the importance of the island both in terms of total Sooty Shearwater population in New Zealand and to the Rakiura Maori who harvest the Titi

Commissioning and co‐production in health and care services in the United Kingdom and Ireland: An exploratory literature review

© 2024 The Authors. Health Expectations published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Introduction: This exploratory literature review seeks to examine the literature around commissioning processes in the co‐production of health and care services, focusing on two questions: How do health and care commissioning processes facilitate and/or pose barriers to co‐production in service design and delivery? What are the contextual factors that influence these processes? Method: A systematic search of three databases (Medline, Public Health and Social Policy and Practice) and a search platform (Web of Science) was conducted for the period 2008–2023. A total of 2675 records were retrieved. After deduplication, 1925 were screened at title and abstract level. Forty‐seven reports from 42 United Kingdom and Ireland studies were included in the review. A thematic synthesis of included studies was conducted in relation to the research questions. Results: The review identified one overarching theme across the synthesised literature: the complexity of the commissioning landscape. Three interconnected subthemes illuminate the contextual factors that influence this landscape: commissioners as leaders of co‐production; navigating relationships and the collective voice. Conclusion: Commissioning processes were commonly a barrier to the co‐production of health and care services. Though co‐production was an aspiration for many commissioners, the political and economic environment and service pressures meant that it was often not fully realised. More flexible funding models, longer‐term pilot projects, an increased emphasis in social value across the health and care system and building capacity for strong leadership in commissioning is needed. Patient and Public Contribution: Patients and the public did not contribute to this review as it was a small piece of work following on from a completed project, with no budget for public involvement.Peer reviewe

Draft Genome Sequence of the Redox-Active Enteric Bacterium Citrobacter portucalensis Strain MBL

We grew a soil enrichment culture to identify organisms that anaerobically oxidize phenazine-1-carboxylic acid. A strain of Citrobacter portucalensis was isolated from this enrichment and sequenced by both Illumina and PacBio technologies. It has a genome with a length of 5.3 Mb, a G+C content of 51.8%, and at least one plasmid

Draft Genome Sequence of the Redox-Active Enteric Bacterium Citrobacter portucalensis Strain MBL

We grew a soil enrichment culture to identify organisms that anaerobically oxidize phenazine-1-carboxylic acid. A strain of Citrobacter portucalensis was isolated from this enrichment and sequenced by both Illumina and PacBio technologies. It has a genome with a length of 5.3 Mb, a G+C content of 51.8%, and at least one plasmid

Draft Genome Sequence of the Iridescent Marine Bacterium Tenacibaculum discolor Strain IMLK18

We report here the draft genome sequence of a strain of Tenacibaculum discolor (Bacteroidetes) that was isolated from the river-ocean interface at Trunk River in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The isolation and genomic sequencing were performed during the 2016 and 2018 Microbial Diversity summer programs at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts

The Colorful World of Extracellular Electron Shuttles

Descriptions of the changeable, striking colors associated with secreted natural products date back well over a century. These molecules can serve as extracellular electron shuttles (EESs) that permit microbes to access substrates at a distance. In this review, we argue that the colorful world of EESs has been too long neglected. Rather than simply serving as a diagnostic attribute of a particular microbial strain, redox-active natural products likely play fundamental, underappreciated roles in the biology of their producers, particularly those that inhabit biofilms. Here, we describe the chemical diversity and potential distribution of EES producers and users, discuss the costs associated with their biosynthesis, and critically evaluate strategies for their economical usage. We hope this review will inspire efforts to identify and explore the importance of EES cycling by a wide range of microorganisms so that their contributions to shaping microbial communities can be better assessed and exploited

Giving voters what they want? Party orientation perceptions and preferences in the British electorate

Some of the most important propositions in the political marketing literature hinge on assumptions about the electorate. In particular, voters are presumed to react in different ways to different orientations or postures. Yet there are theoretical reasons for questioning some of these assumptions, and certainly they have seldom been empirically tested. Here, we focus on one prominent example of political marketing research: Lees-Marshment’s orientations’ model. We investigate how the public reacts to product and market orientation, whether they see a trade-off between the two (a point in dispute among political marketing scholars), and whether partisans differ from non-partisan voters by being more inclined to value product over market orientation. Evidence from two mass sample surveys of the British public (both conducted online by YouGov) demonstrates important heterogeneity within the electorate, casts doubt on the core assumptions underlying some political marketing arguments and raises broader questions about what voters are looking for in a party

Random Geometric Graphs

We analyse graphs in which each vertex is assigned random coordinates in a geometric space of arbitrary dimensionality and only edges between adjacent points are present. The critical connectivity is found numerically by examining the size of the largest cluster. We derive an analytical expression for the cluster coefficient which shows that the graphs are distinctly different from standard random graphs, even for infinite dimensionality. Insights relevant for graph bi-partitioning are included.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures. Minor changes. Added reference

Extracellular DNA Promotes Efficient Extracellular Electron Transfer by Pyocyanin in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms

Redox cycling of extracellular electron shuttles can enable the metabolic activity of subpopulations within multicellular bacterial biofilms that lack direct access to electron acceptors or donors. How these shuttles catalyze extracellular electron transfer (EET) within biofilms without being lost to the environment has been a long-standing question. Here, we show that phenazines mediate efficient EET through interactions with extracellular DNA (eDNA) in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Retention of pyocyanin (PYO) and phenazine carboxamide in the biofilm matrix is facilitated by eDNA binding. In vitro, different phenazines can exchange electrons in the presence or absence of DNA and can participate directly in redox reactions through DNA. In vivo, biofilm eDNA can also support rapid electron transfer between redox active intercalators. Together, these results establish that PYO:eDNA interactions support an efficient redox cycle with rapid EET that is faster than the rate of PYO loss from the biofilm