731 research outputs found
On the Use of StorAge Selection Functions to Assess Time‐Variant Travel Times in Lakes
Funding Information ERC. Grant Number: GA 335910 VeWaPeer reviewedPublisher PD
Global health: setting the agenda for veterinary medical education to enable veterinarians to meet their responsibilities in the field
Summary We regard the set of papers in this issue (OIE Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 28 [2]) as a blueprint for an agenda to bridge the divides within the global scope of the veterinary profession, so that it will meet its responsibilities to the world as it develops in the coming decades. It defines the areas with which all veterinary students should be knowledgeable, provides emphasis on the need to expand the education of all veterinary students in terms of their global health responsibilities, and then provides insights into the educational approaches that can result in the inclusion of global health issues within the veterinary curriculum. Keywords Global health -Global veterinary public health -Veterinary medical educationVeterinary profession. Global health: defining, creating and setting the agenda for veterinary medical education In 1986 I (LS) presented my Wooldridge Memorial Lecture entitled 'New horizons for veterinary medicine: can the educators respond?' (40). I identified several issues which were of topical concern at the time, including genetic modification of crops and animals, use of animals to produce pharmacological substances, embryo transfer and the use of genetically engineered growth hormone to increase milk yield in dairy cows, to mention a few. These were the burning issues of some 20 years ago and they focused on cumulative events in veterinary medicine over several decades. Now the issues are quite different. We are now living in a post-Malthusian age and the contributions to this volume recognise the need for the veterinary profession, and thereby veterinary education, to respond to the challenges posed by the coming urgencies. Expert population predictions are accepted as fairly reliable and the issues that come with them are global in nature and urgently need attention. By 2050 it is estimated that nine billion people will inhabit our planet amid global warming, environmental degradation, water shortages and possibly social unrest (24). A vital issue will be the feeding of these nine billion, who will increasingly demand animal protein and will increasingly live in urban communities A recurrent theme in all these issues, whether they are related to climate, food, or disease surveillance and control, is the need for rapid action. But as rapid as we would wish this action to be it does take several years of research before new technology can become a practical reality that is ready for field use. The average lead time required to translate new technologies into commercial products (e.g. vaccines) is at least 10 years, so there is an urgent need to ensure high quality research now to find the solutions to provide food security for the future. An important question in this global scenario is 'Does the veterinary profession have a role to play?' The various contributions to this volume express the wholehearted opinion that it does. If this is so, is the profession prepared to address the global issues and how? Unfortunately, while at present there may be a willingness to do so it is problematic that there is the urgency and the means to design new and innovative programmes in veterinary schools and colleges to address the many issues that will encompass the global scene. As has been emphasised by King in this set of publications (25), the veterinary global community must work in unison; this volume identifies courses of action that must be taken if we, the veterinary profession, are to play an important role in the issues that not only will be upon us in a few decades time, but are already placing animal and human health and welfare under threat. So when in my Wooldridge Lecture I posed the question 'Can the educators respond?' perhaps the question should have been 'Must the educators respond?' and the answer to this is undoubtedly 'Yes'! But there will need to be a radical change of emphasis in the educational programmes of veterinary schools and it is hoped that this volume will be the blueprint for that future emphasis. The world already looks to human medicine to play a critical role in these global issues, but there is little recognition of the world role that could and should be played by the veterinary profession. Is this a failure on the part of the veterinary profession and its leadership to recognise and embrace the challenges posed by these global issues? To engage with these issues would be consistent with the 'global health' concept of 'One World, One Health' proposed by Osburn, Scott and Gibbs (34), who describe it as an integrated approach to animal, human and environmental health, an interdependence that has never been more important or urgent than now. In the coming decades, as emphasised by Kelly (24), the need to produce more food and provide greater security from plagues will involve close cooperation between the medical and veterinary professions, i.e. 'one medicine '. Halliwell (21), in discussing the responsibilities of veterinary educators in responding to the emerging needs of veterinary medicine, identifies the responsibility of national and international organisations as that of providing foresight and vision, and he gives the Foresight Project initiative of the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (55) as an example of a project that envisions a number of scenarios for veterinary education in the years ahead. A 'bold and imaginative' (21) report emerged from the Foresight Project, but Halliwell accepts that change is a long-term process and that any impact upon curriculum developments has yet to appear. The concept of 'one medicine' was mooted as early as the 19th Century by Virchow, a German physician and pathologist who stated, 'Between animal and human medicine there is no dividing line, nor should there be'. Various other authors have put forward the concept of 'one medicine', for example William Osler (35) and Calvin Schwabe (38). In the examination of this concept both medical and veterinary education came under critical scrutiny in the early 20th Century on both sides of the Atlantic. The Flexner Report (17) to the Carnegie Foundation in 1910 lambasted medical education in the United States of America (USA): 'medical schools were private money-making ventures, bickering and feuding were standard means of faculty communication'. The Flexner Report revolutionised medical thinking in North America, sweeping away the apprenticeship system and establishing the concept that research and teaching go hand in hand. This produced an emphasis on science rather than manipulative skills. Veterinary education in both the USA and Europe felt the blast of the Flexner Report and in the United Kingdom (UK) the Second Loveday Report in 1944 (29) recommended that veterinary colleges, hitherto independent, should become part of universities. 'Nothing short of this will give veterinary education the standing and the opportunities for development … which the national economy deserves and requires'. The introduction of comparative medicine (or 'one medicine') into university thought in the UK may be attributed to Sir Clifford Allbut, Regius Professor of Physik in Cambridge, who in 1919 advocated that Cambridge University should set up a Central Institute of Comparative Pathology, saying 'We cannot tell how bright the cross lights which … will be thrown upon the fields of several pathologies of all kinds of life'. In response to Allbut' s Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 28 (2) 862 Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 28 (2) King (25) in his article 'One world of veterinary medicine', 'Today, the veterinary profession sits on the cusp of the greatest period of challenges and opportunities in its history'. These challenges include recognising and responding to zoonotic disease transmission and vector-borne diseases, maintaining food and water quality and promoting wildlife and ecosystem health The elucidation of E. coli O157:H7 infection associated with leafy greens originally identified cattle as the hosts for outbreaks of human diseases. But the fields where the produce (leafy greens) was grown had no direct link to cattle; the role of feral pigs was then examined and they were identified as a source of contamination. After mingling with cattle in pastures some quarter of a mile away the pigs moved into these leafy green fields and defecated there, mechanised harvesters with vacuum pickup systems picked up leafy greens and debris, including pig faeces, all of which was transferred to washing containers where a cooling process placed the E. coli in contact with the internal and external surfaces of the leafy greens. In the field of companion animals it is now recognised that the study of the restricted genomes of many breeds of companion animals offers an outstanding opportunity to provide a joined up approach to research on human and animal diseases in which veterinary schools can provide leadership ('one medicine'). Examples of comparative medical issues or 'one medicine' are combined immuno-deficiency in Arab horses, canine leucocyte adhesion deficiency in Irish Setters, syringomyelia in Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and brachycephalia in Pekinese and Bulldogs. An area which must command increased attention in any veterinary school curriculum and research programme is public health and zoonoses. Of the 1,461 infectious diseases of man, 875 are of animal origin and this ratio is increasing. This is a matter of growing concern, as is the resurgence in antimicrobial medications for food producing animals and the concomitant increase of antibiotic resistance. Of particular note is the recognition that antibiotic-resistant genes are circulating in the environment via commensal organisms. Since the veterinary profession has been accused of causing a substantial proportion of antibiotic resistance problems there is the need to have the prudent use of antimicrobial agents more clearly enunciated throughout the curriculum. The development of antimicrobials is ranked among the most important advances in medicine. Many lifethreatening infections have been controlled while minor infectious morbidity is readily treated. Antibiotic prophylates have made many surgical procedures, transplantation medicine and cancer therapy much safer. The therapeutic effectiveness of antimicrobials differs from other drugs since they target microorganisms as opposed to host-derived pathologies. Unlike other drugs the therapeutic effectiveness is continually threatened by the emergence and spread of resistant organisms. Antibiotic resistance must be viewed as a serious threat to public health. Fanning et al. (15) maintain that current veterinary education programmes do not provide the means to enhance an undergraduate student' s understanding of this situation. As a first step they maintain that a modern education programme should provide students with a holistic view of the ecology of resistance and how it can emerge. The importance of food animal veterinary education is examined by Bravo et al. (8) who identify the need for the curriculum to be adapted to the individual circumstances Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 28 (2) 864 of a country or region. In Europe, for example, in 2010, curricula must be adapted to the guidelines of the European Space for Higher Education and Bravo et al. maintain that it is now time to specify how the veterinary curricula can be most adequately oriented to adapt them to these new requirements. These authors recognise that there is increasing demand for food of animal origin globally, which has highlighted the lack of farm veterinarians in some Western countries, and they note that an increasingly 'urban' mentality is developing in the profession and in veterinary education. In a strongly argued contribution these authors identify that one of the tasks that veterinary professionals are most frequently asked to perform is to guarantee the safety of food production for the consumer, thereby safeguarding human health, without neglecting animal health and welfare. When a country is heavily dependent on meat and livestock exports, as for example Australia or New Zealand are, the veterinary authorities carry an important burden of responsibility for the examination and certification of exported products. Therefore it would be expected that the veterinary curriculum would have a strong public health component. As pointed out by Abbott (1), Craven (12), and Fenwick and Wilks (16, 54), as Australia is the largest exporter of red meat and animals in the world it needs to have a veterinary curriculum appropriately rich and broad in these areas to produce graduates who are able to address challenges in related areas of veterinary public health throughout the world. To this end a Public Health University Network in Australia has been established to harmonise the veterinary public health curricula at the various veterinary schools and to develop the Australian veterinary public health philosophy. The global implications of veterinary public health teaching in Australia are great and teachers in educational establishments recognise that the veterinary profession is a truly global profession and it is integral to the success of the 'One Health' concept. Similarly, Swan et al. (43) emphasise that education in countries in which endemic exotic diseases exist must be tailored to an understanding of the surveillance and control needs, not only for that region, e.g. sub-Saharan Africa, but globally as well. To advance this concept in southeast Asian countries a meeting of the Asian Association of Veterinary Schools has recommended that graduates of veterinary schools in Asia should have extensive training in population health, preventative medicine and zoonotic diseases (57). In some universities veterinary public health is taken further by Master of Science courses, thereby supplementing the undergraduate courses. In South America, Berruecos and Zarco (6) describe the integration of issues of global animal and public health into the veterinary education curriculum. Historically, in most Latin American countries the development of veterinary education followed that of Mexico, with a practical transition from a curriculum oriented towards equine medicine to one that balances animal health, animal production and public health. Concomitant with this development there was a marked increase in the number of veterinary colleges in South America; there are now more than 200, with 160 of them being in Brazil alone. Under the auspices of the Panamerican Association of Veterinary Sciences, the Pan American Federation of Veterinary Schools (PFVS) was created to 'promote modification of veterinary curricula to deliver basic veterinary education according to the political, social, economic, sanitary and environmental realities of the region and to orient veterinary education towards higher emphasis on animal health, quality and efficiency of veterinary services and ethical and environmental consciousness'. This has resulted in curricular harmonisation, with a basic curriculum for veterinary education in Latin America and the recommendation that every veterinary college in the region, regardless of educational methodology or species emphasis, makes sure that its curriculum covers specified areas, two of which are public health, and ethics and social responsibility (Berruecos and Zarco, Projections of problems for the coming decades (e.g. global warming, environmental degradation and food shortages) also include warnings about water and its role in disease transmission, zoonoses and agricultural cultivations. The need for water in food production, in both horticulture and livestock undertakings is obvious and its shortage may well lead to famine, as indeed it already has in some parts of the world. However, waterborne transmission of infectious diseases is of importance to the veterinarian, and Bowman (52) emphasise the need for these to be an essential component of veterinary education. Apart from being the most numerous of companion animals, they serve as vital indicators for marine and freshwater ecosystems and, importantly, as the source of high quality food in many parts of the world. In general, fish production, health and welfare are not as widely taught as they should be and are often relegated to postgraduate programmes such as those at the University of Stirling and the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science. In their contribution to this volume Lipman and van Knapen (28) discuss the need for a different kind of veterinarian, and most certainly there is a growing agreement globally that the curricula hitherto espoused by veterinary schools no longer adequately prepare students to respond to the span of responsibilities that the veterinarian may be called upon to deal with. Lipman and van Knapen If we are to accomplish the changes proposed by the various authors of this volume and prepare students for work in a globalised world then we must retool the educational programmes worldwide (9). De Lamballerie (14) urges the case for an understanding of molecular tools and molecular biology to appreciate epidemiological aspects of disease genetic susceptibility. Stoddard and Glynn (42), Windsor (56) and Malone et al. (32) give a breadth of examples of opening the window on public health to veterinary students. These include 'extern'-ships in various agencies of which there are several willing to take on students. Such opportunities, along with the new curriculum at the University of Calgary, Canada (13), which is based on the 'One World, One Health' concept, are moves in the right direction. Stoddard and Glynn (42) state that within the next 20 years the shortage of veterinary graduates entering public health practice could be as great as 15,000. Capua (10), and Wilks and Fenwick (54) call for a greater understanding of viruses, viral diseases, the epidemiology of their pathology and control options, particularly as they relate to domestic wild animals and birds. Coupled with this is the need for a greater understanding and knowledge of the tools available for diagnoses and control. This also requires new graduates to have an understanding of research and the need for it (19). In particular, new graduates need to know and appreciate the scientific method, how to search the literature, how to formulate and address hypotheses and how to get the information to the appropriate ears. The involvement in research in parallel with the veterinary degree (dual degree programmes) is increasingly seen in some countries. Inclusion of conservation medicine and ecosystem health in the veterinary curriculum worldwide is recommended by Aguirre and Gomez (2, 3) as a means of preparing veterinarians to fulfil critical roles in sustaining global health. Bellemain and Coppalle (5) describe the public health governance issues that must be included in the veterinary curriculum and emphasise that they must be taught in the context of the actual situation in a specific country. An aspect of veterinary education not touched upon in sufficient detail is that of animal welfare. Veterinarians have a special responsibility for the welfare of animals in general and particularly for those under their care. Whether acting as clinicians or policy advisors veterinarians have a special role to play as 'animal advocates' while taking into account the considerations of owners, animal industries and governments (Main et al., Achieving the needed results The authors of this volume of papers clearly strongly subscribe to the need for veterinary graduates to be well cognisant of the breadth of global issues and problems that they have discussed. This especially includes an understanding of the role that the profession must play in meeting the United Nations declared Millennium Goals for feeding the world' s population (39) and the issues that must be handled in protecting and preserving the planet' s ecosystem (3, 41). Veterinarians must receive training that enables them to make an effective contribution to these issues, and the papers in this volume cover the broad range of subject areas that should be included in that training. Critically, it is not just the veterinarians who will be directly working within these areas who need this training, but all veterinarians, since all must be spokespersons for the veterinary profession and must understand the role of veterinarians at global level. To accomplish this critical task they need to have a solid foundation in the range of key areas. Veterinarians in practices must serve as the knowledgeable link to the local communities that they serve. How can these goals be brought about and global public health served by the veterinary community? What clearly would seem absolutely necessary is a significant change in the curriculum in most, if not all, veterinary schools. But to accomplish this is a major problem since many in veterinary education would conclude that even the current curricula are already unacceptably stretched beyond a reasonable educational load and overcrowded with the broad range of subjects that must be taught. The solution, however, cannot be to ignore the issue. Major curricula changes are unfortunately usually very difficult to achieve and indeed, as Turnwald et al. (46) have noted, the difficulties involved in introducing these changes have been compared to the difficulties of moving a cemetery. An added conundrum is that with some teachers there is a cult of complete coverage
"We Were in a Partnership That Wasn't Recognized by Anyone Else'': Examining the Effects of Male Gay Partner Bereavement, Masculinity, and Identity
Research with older gay “widowers”1 is relatively rare and the majority focuses on the AIDS/HIV context, rather than on broader causes of death. However, drawing on studies of heterosexual spousal bereavement, we suggest that older widowers are faced with two competing challenges that impact on their identity. They are expected to grieve in a socially acceptable manner, while at the same time conform to hegemonic masculine identity. We investigate whether gay widowers face the same challenges and whether there are additional challenges compared to heterosexual widowers following the loss of their partners. We interviewed twenty older gay widowers about their experiences. We illustrate our findings with four case studies. We find that gay men, like heterosexual men, manage the challenges of normative grieving as defined by hegemonic masculinity. However, gay men also face challenges of gay identity. We discuss the ways in which these men negotiate the intersectionality of grieving, masculinity, and being gay. In addition, identities are reconstructed in response to the expectations of the gay community. Finally, gay men have to negotiate their position as grieving widower within the wider social context. </jats:p
The influence of riparian woodland on the spatial and temporal variability of stream water temperatures in an upland salmon stream
International audienceThe spatio-temporal variability of stream water temperatures was investigated at six locations on the Girnock Burn (30km2 catchment), Cairngorms, Scotland over three hydrological years between 1998 and 2002. The key site-specific factors affecting the hydrology and climatology of the sampling points were investigated as a basis for physical process inference. Particular emphasis was placed on assessing the effects of riparian forest in the lower catchment versus the heather moorland riparian zones that are spatially dominant in the upper catchment. The findings were related to river heat budget studies that provided process detail. Gross changes in stream temperature were affected by the annual cycle of incoming solar radiation and seasonal changes in hydrological and climatological conditions. Inter-annual variation in these controlling variables resulted in inter-annual variability in thermal regime. However, more subtle inter-site differences reflected the impact of site-specific characteristics on various components of the river energy budget. Inter-site variability was most apparent at shorter time scales, during the summer months and for higher stream temperatures. Riparian woodland in the lower catchment had a substantial impact on thermal regime, reducing diel variability (over a period of 24 hours) and temperature extremes. Observed inter-site differences are likely to have a substantial effect on freshwater ecology in general and salmonid fish in particular. Keywords: temperature, thermal regime, forest, salmon, hydrology, Girnock Burn, Cairngor
Assessing the impact of drought on water cycling in urban trees via in-situ isotopic monitoring of plant xylem water
CRediT authorship contribution statement A-M. Ring: Data curation, Writing – original draft, Visualization, Investigation, Validation, Formal analysis, Methodology. D. Tetzlaff: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing, Validation, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Software. M. Dubbert: Writing – review & editing, Investigation, Methodology. J. Freymueller: Data curation, Investigation, Methodology. C. Soulsby: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing, Validation, Supervision.Peer reviewe
Metrics to assess how longitudinal channel network connectivity and in-stream Atlantic salmon habitats are impacted by hydropower regulation
Acknowledgements Thanks to the Scottish Government's Hydro Nation Scholars Program for funding WBB to do this research. Also, many thanks to colleagues at Marine Science Scotland and the James Hutton Institute for providing some of the datasets used in this work. The authors thank the anonymous referees for constructive feedback on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprin
Scale-dependent groundwater contributions influence patterns of winter baseflow stream chemistry in boreal catchments
Funded by •KCS •Swedish Science Foundation (VR) SITES •European Research Council. Grant Number: GA 335910 VEWAPeer reviewedPublisher PD
Variability in stream discharge and temperature: a preliminary assessment of the implications for juvenile and spawning Atlantic salmon
This study focuses on understanding the temporal variability in hydrological and thermal conditions in a small mountain stream and its potential implication for two life stages of Atlantic salmon (<I>Salmo salar</I>) – stream resident juveniles and returning adult spawners. Stream discharge and temperature in the Girnock Burn, NE Scotland, were characterised over ten hydrological years (1994/1995–2003/2004). Attention was focussed on assessing variations during particular ecologically 'sensitive' time periods when selected life-stages of salmon behaviour may be especially influenced by hydrological and thermal conditions. <P style='line-height: 20px;'> Empirical discharge data were used to derive hydraulic parameters to predict the Critical Displacement Velocity (CDV) of juvenile salmon. This is the velocity above which fish may no longer be able to hold station in the water column and thus can be used as an index of time periods where feeding behaviour might be constrained. In the Girnock Burn, strong inter- and intra-annual variability in hydrological and thermal conditions may have important implications for feeding opportunities for juvenile fish; both during important growth periods in late winter and early spring, and the emergence of fry in the late spring. Time periods when foraging behaviour of juvenile salmon may be constrained by hydraulic conditions were assessed as the percentage time when CDV for 0+ and 1+ fish were exceeded by mean daily stream velocities. Clear seasonal patterns of CDV were apparent, with higher summer values driven by higher stream temperatures and fish length. Inter-annual variability in the time when mean stream velocity exceeded CDV for 0+ fish ranged between 29.3% (1997/1998) and 44.7% (2000/2001). For 1+ fish mean stream velocity exceeded CDV between 14.5% (1997/1998) and 30.7% (2000/2001) of the time. <P style='line-height: 20px;'> The movement of adult spawners into the Girnock Burn in preparation for autumn spawning (late October to mid-November) exhibited a complex relationship with hydrological variability with marked inter-annual contrasts. In years when discharge in the period prior to spawning was low, fish movement was increasingly triggered by suboptimal flow increases as spawning time approached. In contrast, wet years with numerous events allowed a much more even distribution of fish entry. Elucidating links between discharge/temperature variability and foraging opportunities and upriver migration of adult Atlantic salmon have the potential to contribute to the improvement of conservation strategies in both regulated and unregulated rivers
Practical sand transport formula for non-breaking waves and currents
Open Access funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Under a Creative Commons license Acknowledgements This work is part of the SANTOSS project (‘SANd Transport in OScillatory flows in the Sheet-flow regime’) funded by the UK's EPSRC (GR/T28089/01) and STW in The Netherlands (TCB.6586). JW acknowledges Deltares strategic research funding under project number 1202359.09. Richard Soulsby is gratefully acknowledged for valuable discussions and feedback on the formula during the SANTOSS project.Peer reviewedPostprin
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