BARRIERS TO WILDLIFE HARVESTING AMONG ABORIGINAL COMMUNITIES IN CANADA AND ALASKA

A large body of research confirms that access to wildlife resources can reduce conditions of food insecurity and health-related illness among Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Alaska. This thesis is premised on the belief that food insecurity is experienced unevenly among individuals, households, and communities, and is socially and economically differentiated within Aboriginal communities. This premise was tested through research that was conducted in Alaska, Alberta, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut, and included an analysis of 2,463 household harvesting surveys. The purpose of this research was to examine the barriers that constrain Aboriginal households from harvesting wildlife resources to their desired extent. The objectives were to quantify the principle barriers that affect wildlife harvesting, examine how those barriers are experienced at various levels (e.g. age and gender) within the regions, and contribute to a more informed understanding of Aboriginal food security. The results demonstrate that the constraints experienced by Aboriginal peoples in Canada and Alaska in accessing wildfoods are experienced differently depending on region, community, age, gender, and the political environment in which wildlife harvesting occurs. These findings underscore the diversity of factors that can influence one’s access to wildlife resources, and one’s chance of being food insecure. These findings will contribute to a more informed understanding of Aboriginal food security in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Regions of North America and will lead to more flexible policies that can account for the social, economic and political diversity in which Aboriginal food insecurity is experienced

Transparent Roles in Feedback in the Student-Faculty Partnership for Teaching and Learning

Faculty devote effort and energy promoting learner-centered opportunities that reinforce course content. Through the use of varied pedagogical strategies, appreciating the transparency in learning and teaching (TILT) process, faculty-structured learning opportunities can promote students thinking critically about their performance, building a repertoire of skills to advance learning at higher levels. The feedback that faculty provide and the format given can enhance student-faculty partnerships and success in the service-learning or practicum classroom. Feedback considerations for type (verbal, written, or a combination) and time are paramount to promoting faculty and student partnerships. The method of feedback delivery should be taken into consideration to support student learning

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe

Native-Invasive Plants vs. Halophytes in Mediterranean Salt Marshes: Stress Tolerance Mechanisms in Two Related Species

Artículo 473Dittrichia viscosa is a Mediterranean ruderal species that over the last decades has expanded into new habitats, including coastal salt marshes, ecosystems that are per se fragile and threatened by human activities. To assess the potential risk that this native-invasive species represents for the genuine salt marsh vegetation, we compared its distribution with that of Inula crithmoides, a taxonomically related halophyte, in three salt marshes located in La Albufera Natural Park, near the city of Valencia (East Spain). The presence of D. viscosa was restricted to areas of low and moderate salinity, while I. crithmoides was also present in the most saline zones of the salt marshes. Analyses of the responses of the two species to salt and water stress treatments in controlled experiments revealed that both activate the same physiological stress tolerance mechanisms, based essentially on the transport of toxic ions to the leaves where they are presumably compartmentalized in vacuoles and the accumulation of specific osmolytes for osmotic adjustment. The two species differ in the efficiency of those mechanisms: salt-induced increases in Na+ and Cl- contents were higher in I. crithmoides than in D. viscosa, and the osmolytes (especially glycine betaine, but also arabinose, fructose and glucose) accumulated at higher levels in the former species. This explains the (slightly) higher stress tolerance of I. crithmoides, as compared to D. viscosa, established from growth inhibition measurements and their distribution in nature. The possible activation of K+ transport to the leaves under high salinity conditions may also contribute to salt tolerance in I. crithmoides. Oxidative stress level estimated from malondialdehyde accumulation was higher in the less tolerant D. viscosa, which consequently activated antioxidant responses as a defense mechanism against stress; these responses were weaker or absent in the more tolerant I. crithmoides. Based on these results, we concluded that although D. viscosa cannot directly compete with true halophytes in highly saline environments, it is nevertheless quite stress tolerant and therefore represents a threat for the vegetation located on the salt marshes borders, where several endemic and threatened species are found in the area of studyWork in the UPV laboratories was partly funded by a grant to OV from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Project CGL2008-00438/BOS), with contribution from the European Regional Development Fund.Al Hassan, M.; Juliana Chaura; López Gresa, MP.; Orsolya Borsai; Daniso, E.; Donat-Torres, MP.; Mayoral García-Berlanga, O.... (2016). Native-Invasive Plants vs. Halophytes in Mediterranean Salt Marshes: Stress Tolerance Mechanisms in Two Related Species. Frontiers in Plant Science. 7:1-21. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00473S121

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome

Dimethyl fumarate in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF) inhibits inflammasome-mediated inflammation and has been proposed as a treatment for patients hospitalised with COVID-19. This randomised, controlled, open-label platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), is assessing multiple treatments in patients hospitalised for COVID-19 (NCT04381936, ISRCTN50189673). In this assessment of DMF performed at 27 UK hospitals, adults were randomly allocated (1:1) to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus DMF. The primary outcome was clinical status on day 5 measured on a seven-point ordinal scale. Secondary outcomes were time to sustained improvement in clinical status, time to discharge, day 5 peripheral blood oxygenation, day 5 C-reactive protein, and improvement in day 10 clinical status. Between 2 March 2021 and 18 November 2021, 713 patients were enroled in the DMF evaluation, of whom 356 were randomly allocated to receive usual care plus DMF, and 357 to usual care alone. 95% of patients received corticosteroids as part of routine care. There was no evidence of a beneficial effect of DMF on clinical status at day 5 (common odds ratio of unfavourable outcome 1.12; 95% CI 0.86-1.47; p = 0.40). There was no significant effect of DMF on any secondary outcome