Child Exploitation and the FIFA World Cup: A review of risks and protective interventions

This review was commissioned by the Child Abuse Programme (CAP) of Oak Foundation, a large international philanthropic organisation. It forms part of CAP’s effort to win societal rejection of practices such as the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents around major sporting events (MSEs), and to embed prevention and protection from exploitation as a permanent concern for global sports-related bodies. This review is intended to inform action in countries that host MSEs and to provide some suggestions on how hosting countries can avoid past pitfalls and mistakes in relation to child exploitation, especially economic and sexual exploitation. Importantly, it also acts as a call to action by those responsible for commissioning and staging MSEs, such as FIFA and the IOC, to anticipate, prepare for and adopt risk mitigation strategies and interventions. Positive leadership from these culturally powerful bodies could prove decisive in shifting hearts, minds and actions in the direction of improved safety for children

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Off-shelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60–100 and 0–40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf

Landesque capital as an alternative to food storage in Melanesia: Irrigated taro terraces in New Georgia, Solomon Islands

In the Pacific islands, subsistence diversity made possible continuous production of food while welldeveloped exchange networks redistributed these foodstuffs as well as items within the prestige economy. All these were aspects of the ‘storage structures’ that enabled social and nutritional value to be saved, accumulated and later mobilised. In addition, there were investments in the land, landesque capital, which secured future food surpluses and so provided an alternative to food storage, in a region where the staple foods were mostly perishable, yams excepted, and food preservation was difficult. Landesque capital included such long-term improvements to productivity as terraces, mounds, irrigation channels, drainage ditches, soil structural changes and tree planting. These investments provided an effective alternative to food storage and made possible surplus production for exchange purposes. As an example, in the New Georgia group of the western Solomon Islands irrigated terraces, termed ruta, were constructed for growing the root crop taro (Colocasia esculenta). Surplus taro from ruta enabled inland groups to participate in regional exchange networks and so obtain the shell valuables that were produced by coastal groups. In this paper, we reconstruct how this exchange system worked in New Georgia using ethno-archaeological evidence, we chart its prehistoric rise and post-colonial fall, and we outline the factors that constrained its long-term expansion.Our gratitude for support during earlier fieldwork in the New Georgia group has already been expressed in previous publications. The 2014 project was supported by the Smuts Fund and Foreign Travel Fund, University of Cambridge, and by St John’s College, Cambridge.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Maney at http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1749631414Y.000000004

Carbon on the Northwest European Shelf: Contemporary Budget and Future Influences

© Copyright © 2020 Legge, Johnson, Hicks, Jickells, Diesing, Aldridge, Andrews, Artioli, Bakker, Burrows, Carr, Cripps, Felgate, Fernand, Greenwood, Hartman, Kröger, Lessin, Mahaffey, Mayor, Parker, Queirós, Shutler, Silva, Stahl, Tinker, Underwood, Van Der Molen, Wakelin, Weston and Williamson. A carbon budget for the northwest European continental shelf seas (NWES) was synthesized using available estimates for coastal, pelagic and benthic carbon stocks and flows. Key uncertainties were identified and the effect of future impacts on the carbon budget were assessed. The water of the shelf seas contains between 210 and 230 Tmol of carbon and absorbs between 1.3 and 3.3 Tmol from the atmosphere annually. Off-shelf transport and burial in the sediments account for 60–100 and 0–40% of carbon outputs from the NWES, respectively. Both of these fluxes remain poorly constrained by observations and resolving their magnitudes and relative importance is a key research priority. Pelagic and benthic carbon stocks are dominated by inorganic carbon. Shelf sediments contain the largest stock of carbon, with between 520 and 1600 Tmol stored in the top 0.1 m of the sea bed. Coastal habitats such as salt marshes and mud flats contain large amounts of carbon per unit area but their total carbon stocks are small compared to pelagic and benthic stocks due to their smaller spatial extent. The large pelagic stock of carbon will continue to increase due to the rising concentration of atmospheric CO2, with associated pH decrease. Pelagic carbon stocks and flows are also likely to be significantly affected by increasing acidity and temperature, and circulation changes but the net impact is uncertain. Benthic carbon stocks will be affected by increasing temperature and acidity, and decreasing oxygen concentrations, although the net impact of these interrelated changes on carbon stocks is uncertain and a major knowledge gap. The impact of bottom trawling on benthic carbon stocks is unique amongst the impacts we consider in that it is widespread and also directly manageable, although its net effect on the carbon budget is uncertain. Coastal habitats are vulnerable to sea level rise and are strongly impacted by management decisions. Local, national and regional actions have the potential to protect or enhance carbon storage, but ultimately global governance, via controls on emissions, has the greatest potential to influence the long-term fate of carbon stocks in the northwestern European continental shelf

Conversion of forest to agriculture increases colored dissolved organic matter in a subtropical catchment and adjacent coastal environment

Land-ocean dissolved organic matter (DOM) transport is a significant and changing term in global biogeochemical cycles which is increasing as a result of human perturbation, including land-use change. Knowledge of the behavior and fate of transported DOM is lacking, particularly in the tropics and subtropics where land-use change is occurring rapidly. We used Parallel Factor (PARAFAC) Analysis to investigate how land-use influenced the composition of the DOM pool along a subtropical land-use gradient (from near-pristine broadleaf forest to agri-urban settings) in Belize, Central America. Three humic-like and two protein-like components were identified, each of which was present across land uses and environments. Land-use mapping identified a strong (R2 = 0.81) negative correlation between broadleaf forest and agri-urban land. All PARAFAC components were positively associated with agri-urban land-use classes (cropland, grassland, and/or urban land), indicating that land-use change from forested to agri-urban exerts influence on the composition of the DOM pool. Humic-like DOM exhibited linear accumulation with distance downstream and behaved conservatively in the coastal zone whilst protein-like DOM exhibited nonlinear accumulation within the main river and nonconservative mixing in coastal waters, indicative of differences in reactivity. We used a hydrodynamic model to explore the potential of conservative humics to reach the region's environmentally and economically valuable coral reefs. We find that offshore corals experience short exposures (10 ± 11 days yr−1) to large (∼120%) terrigenous DOM increases, whilst nearshore corals experience prolonged exposure (113 ± 24 days yr−1) to relatively small (∼30%) terrigenous DOM increases

Solute transport via the new permeability pathways in Plasmodium falciparum-infected human red blood cells is not consistent with a simple single-channel model

After infection of a red blood cell (RBC), the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, increases the permeability of the host’s plasma membrane by inducing new permeability pathways (NPPs). Single-channel patch-clamp experiments have shown the presence in infected RBCs of novel anion-selective channel types with low open-state probabilities at positive membrane potentials. These channels have been postulated to form the NPPs. Here, we have used a range of transport techniques to study whether electroneutral solutes use these channels or altered/separate pathways. Transport of the electroneutral solute sorbitol via the NPPs was found to increase by a small but significant amount after gross membrane depolarization. This is inconsistent with transport via a channel with a reduced open-state probability at positive membrane potentials. As has been demonstrated previously for parasite-induced anion currents, sorbitol transport in infected RBCs was found to be sensitive to the presence of bovine serum albumin (BSA). However, it remains to be shown whether the effect is due to serum/BSA altering a single channel type or activating a new pathway. In addition, the study highlights problems that can occur when using different transport techniques to study the NPPs

Plasma drug concentrations and physiological measures in 'dance party' participants

The increasing use of (7) 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) in the setting of large dance parties (‘raves’) and clubs has been the source of some concern, because of potential acute adverse events, and because animal studies suggest that MDMA has the potential to damage brain serotonin (5-HT) neurons. However, it is not yet known whether MDMA, as used in the setting of dance parties, leads to plasma levels of MDMA that are associated with toxicity to 5-HT neurons in animals. The present study sought to address this question. Plasma MDMA concentrations, vital signs, and a variety of blood and urine measures were obtained prior to, and hours after, individuals attended a dance party. After the dance party, subjects were without clinical complaints, had measurable amounts of residual MDMA in plasma, and nearly half of the subjects also tested positive for methamphetamine, another amphetamine analog that has been shown to have 5-HT neurotoxic potential in animals. Plasma concentrations of MDMA did not correlate with self-reported use of ‘ecstasy’ and, in some subjects, overlapped with those that have been associated with 5-HT neurotoxicity in non-human primates. Additional subjects were likely to have had similar concentrations while at the dance party, when one considers the reported time of drug ingestion and the plasma half-life of MDMA in humans. Hematological and biochemical analyses were generally unremarkable. Moderate increases in blood pressure, heart rate and body temperature were observed in the subjects with the highest MDMA plasma concentrations. These findings are consistent with epidemiological findings that most people who use MDMA at dance parties do not develop serious clinical complications, and suggest that some of these individuals may be at risk for developing MDMA-induced toxicity to brain serotonin neurons.Rodney J Irvine, Michael Keane, Peter Felgate, Una D McCann, Paul D Callaghan and Jason M Whit