Less government intervention in biodiversity management: risks and opportunities

n a changing global environment, with increasing pressure on ecosystem goods and services, biodiversity conservation is likely to become increasingly important. However, with the current global financial crisis, governments are increasingly trying to stabilise economies through spending cuts aiming to reduce national deficits. Within such an economic climate, the devolution of governance through public participation is an intrinsically appealing concept. We outline a number of challenges that explain why increased participation in biodiversity management has been and may continue to be problematic. Using as a case study the local stakeholder-driven Moray Firth Seal Management Plan in Scotland, we identify four key conditions that were crucial to the successful participatory management of a biodiversity conflict: a local champion, the emergence of a crisis point, the involvement of decision-makers, and long-term financial and institutional support. Three of the four conditions point to the role of direct government involvement, highlighting the risk of devolving responsibility for biodiversity conflict management to local communities. We argue that without an informed debate, the move towards a more participatory approach could pose a danger to hard-won policy gains in relation to public participation, biodiversity conservation and conflict management

Hippocampal lesions disrupt an associative mismatch process

Novel assays were used to assess inter alia whether the hippocampus is involved in detecting novelty per se or in an associative mismatch process. During training, rats received two audiovisual sequences (tone–left constant light and click– left flashing light). In both sham-operated control rats and those with excitotoxic hippocampal lesions, novel visual targets provoked an orienting response that habituated during training. Moreover, like sham-operated rats, rats with hippocampal lesions acquired associations between the elements of two audiovisual sequences. However, subsequent test trials in which the auditory stimuli preceding the visual targets were switched (click–left constant light and tone–left flashing light) provoked renewed orienting to the visual targets in sham-operated rats but not in hippocampal rats. These results support the view that hippocampal damage results in a failure to detect (or act on) mismatches that are generated when an auditory stimulus associatively evokes the memory of one visual stimulus and a different (familiar) visual stimulus is present in the environment

Innovation in immediate neonatal care: development of the Bedside Assessment, Stabilisation and Initial Cardiorespiratory Support (BASICS) trolley

OBJECTIVE: Babies receive oxygen through their umbilical cord while in the uterus and for a few minutes after birth. Currently, if the baby is not breathing well at birth, the cord is cut so as to transfer the newborn to a resuscitation unit. We sought to develop a mobile resuscitation trolley on which newly born babies can be resuscitated while still receiving oxygenated blood and the 'placental transfusion' through the umbilical cord. This would also prevent separation of the mother and baby in the first minutes after birth. DESIGN: Multidisciplinary iterative product development. SETTING: Clinical Engineering Department of a University Teaching Hospital. METHODS: Following an initial design meeting, a series of prototypes were developed. At each stage, the prototype was reviewed by a team of experts in the laboratory and in the hospital delivery suite to determine ease of use and fitness for purpose. A commercial company was identified to collaborate on the trolley's development and secure marking with the Conformite Europeenne mark, allowing the trolley to be introduced into clinical practice. RESULTS: The trolley is a small mobile resuscitation unit based on the concept of an overbed hospital table. It can be manoeuvred to within 50 cm of the mother's pelvis so that the umbilical cord can remain intact during resuscitation, irrespective of whether the baby is born naturally, by instrumental delivery or by caesarean section. Warmth for the newborn comes from a heated mattress and the trolley has the facility to provide suction, oxygen and air. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first mobile resuscitation device designed specifically to facilitate newborn resuscitation at the bedside and with an intact cord. The next step is to assess its safety, its acceptability to clinicians and parents, and to determine whether it allows resuscitation with an intact cord

Qualitative aspects of developmental language impairment relate to language and literacy outcome in adulthood

Background: Developmental language disorder is a heterogeneous diagnostic category. Little research has compared the long-term outcomes of children with different subtypes of language impairment

Adult psychosocial outcomes of children with specific language impairment, pragmatic language impairment and autism

Background: The few studies that have tracked children with developmental language disorder to adulthood have found that these individuals experience considerable difficulties with psychosocial adjustment (for example, academic, vocational and social aptitude). Evidence that some children also develop autistic symptomatology over time has raised suggestions that developmental language disorder may be a high-functioning form of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is not yet clear whether these outcomes vary between individuals with different subtypes of language impairment

Overexpression of Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase-1 in Skeletal Muscle Is Sufficient to Enhance Fatty Acid Oxidation and Improve High-Fat Diet–Induced Insulin Resistance

OBJECTIVE—Skeletal muscle insulin resistance is associated with lipid accumulation, but whether insulin resistance is due to reduced or enhanced flux of long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondria is both controversial and unclear. We hypothesized that skeletal muscle–specific overexpression of the muscle isoform of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1), the enzyme that controls the entry of long-chain fatty acyl CoA into mitochondria, would enhance rates of fatty acid oxidation and improve insulin action in muscle in high-fat diet insulin-resistant rats

Association between general and central adiposity in childhood, and change in these, with cardiovascular risk factors in adolescence: prospective cohort study

Objectives To examine the prospective associations between body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and fat mass in childhood and cardiovascular risk factors at age 15-16

Carrier transport in PbS nanocrystal conducting polymer composites

In this letter we report the carrier mobilities in an inorganic nanocrystal: conducting polymer composite. The composite material in question (lead sulphide nanocrystals in the conducting polymer poly [2-methoxy-5-(2(')-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) was made using a single-pot, surfactant-free synthesis. Mobilties were measured using time of flight techniques. We have found that the inclusion of PbS nanocrystals in MEH-PPV both balances and markedly increases the hole and electron mobilities-the hole mobility is increased by a factor of similar to 10(5) and the electron mobility increased by similar to 10(7) under an applied bias of 5 kV cm(-1). These results explain why dramatic improvements in electrical conductivity and photovoltaic performance are seen in devices fabricated from these composites