Structured Interview Tools: Insights and Issues from Assessing Wellbeing of Fishermen Adapting to Change Using Scoring and Ranking Questions

This case discusses the use of researcher-administered structured interview tools, with ranking and scoring exercises, combined with more open-ended fluid interviews. Drawing on empirical work applying methods from wellbeing research to understanding the social impacts of change in a small-scale fishing community in the East of England, I discuss the insights that were gained from using these tools and some of the methodological issues I encountered. Finally, I reflect on my experience and some of the ethical questions that arose when using these tools. In doing so, I explain my decision to abandon the use of these tools and to privilege a less structured interview approach

Social resilience, place and identity in the small-scale North Norfolk “Cromer Crab” fishery, UK

Fishing once defined many coastal community identities around the British Isles. Over recent decades, these communities have faced the decline of their fishing industry in addition to demographic, environmental, economic change and a changing policy context in coastal areas focused on marine conservation and economic growth. Using a qualitative case study of a smallscale crab fishery, in North Norfolk, famous for its iconic ‘Cromer Crab’, I investigate place identity and attachment and their implications for social resilience. Like many coastal fishing towns, Cromer has become less reliant on fishing and the future of the fishery, central to the town’s identity, appears to be in question. Although the fishing community has been reduced, the remaining Cromer crab fishermen could be considered resilient. I identify the different livelihood strategies fishermen have adopted in order to continue fishing and explore the trade-offs each strategy involves. However, given the significant entry barriers new fishermen face, the future of this fishery appears bleak regardless of the strategy selected. The conceptual approach used allows the relational dynamics of coastal communities experiencing change to be drawn out, enabling a deeper analysis of social resilience. It challenges some of the implicit ideas in the social-ecological resilience and place attachment literature on collective action. It questions the extent to which fishing communities can collectively respond to change and influence fisheries governance. While the social and cultural importance of small-scale fisheries are recognised in national and European policy, the limited participation of fishing communities in their governance continues to hinder their sustainable development and social resilience. The insights from this case study are particularly relevant given recent changes to the management and use of marine space in the UK and highlights the need to broaden debates on social resilience and sustainable development by considering the governance context and relational dynamics of coastal communities experiencing change

Multiple dimensions of wellbeing in practice

In 2005 the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) placed the relationship between human wellbeing and ecosystems firmly at the centre of the agenda for academics and policy makers concerned with sustainable development for the following decades (MA, 2005). The decision to use the concept of human wellbeing was relatively novel and ambitious at the time. Four years later, that decision was decisively underlined by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance (Stiglitz et al., 2009), commissioned by the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and chaired by Joe Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi. This report made a comprehensive case that if we are to achieve sustainable and inclusive development in our societies, then it is necessary to reform our major systems of statistical data collection from being focused on measuring progress in terms of production and consumption, to measuring it in terms of human wellbeing. Since that report there has been an explosion of initiatives to conceptualise and measure human wellbeing, and to put it into practice in academia and policy (Bache and Reardon, 2016; Helliwell et al., 2017)

The Application of Near Infrared Spectroscopy for the Assessment of Avocado Quality Attributes

[Extract] Quality and safety evaluation of agricultural products has become an increasingly important consideration in market/commercial viability and systems for such evaluations are now demanded by customers, including distributors and retailers. Unfortunately, most horticultural products struggle with delivering adequate and consistent quality to the consumer. Removing inconsistencies and providing what the consumer expects is a key factor for retaining and expanding both domestic and international markets. Most commercial quality classification systems for fruit and vegetables are based on external features of the product, for example: shape, colour, size, weight and blemishes. However, the external appearance of most fruit is generally not an accurate guide to the internal or eating quality of the fruit. Internal quality of fruit is currently subjectively judged on attributes such as volatiles, firmness, and appearance. Destructive subjective measures such as internal flesh colour, or objective measures such as extraction of juice to measure sweetness (°Brix) or assessment of dry matter (DM) content are also used, although obviously not for every fruit – just a sample to represent the whole consignment

MRI and Neuropsychological Correlates of Carbon Monoxide Exposure: A Case Report

A 45-year-old woman experienced long-term, chronic exposure to carbon monoxide in the restaurant kitchen where she was employed as a cook. After returning to the restaurant after 5 days off work, she noticed that her symptoms returned immediately; she then aired out the room and called the gas company. Approximately 6 hr after a leak was detected, the patient went to the hospital, where her carboxyhemoglobin was found to be within normal limits and results of a neurologic examination were described as normal. Based on her symptoms, the patient believed she had been exposed to CO for at least 1 year before the leak was discovered. Initially, she experienced flu-like symptoms, which eventually resolved. At the time of her first neuropsychological evaluation (17 months after the exposure was identified), her persisting complaints included difficulties in reading, writing, speaking and word retrieval. The test results were consistent with secondary frontal lobe dysfunction associated with subcortical disorders such as those seen after CO exposure. Results of a subsequent neuropsychological examination (29 months postexposure) showed slight improvement in performance, but her performance was still consistent with mild frontal/subcortical dysfunction. Although the initial screening of a brain magnetic resonance image (MRI) performed 15 months after the exposure was interpreted as being within normal limits, two subsequent blind reviews of the same scans identified multiple bilateral lesions in the basal ganglia, which were consistent with chronic CO exposure. We present this case as an example of the utility of MRI and neuropsychological examinations in detecting central nervous system dysfunction secondary to CO exposure

Access as the Means for Understanding Social-Ecological Resilience: Bridging Analytical Frameworks

Social Ecological Systems (SES) resilience has become the mainstream analytical framework for understanding the interactions between the social and environmental dynamics of change. However, issues around the role of power and agency, which have been described as blind spots by critics, have raised concerns regarding its application to real-world empirical cases. We explore how Ribot and Peluso’s Theory of Access can be applied to address critical theoretical gaps in SES by examining how its structural and relational access mechanisms relate to diversity, feedbacks and connectivity which are central to the dynamics of SES. Testing this through two different case studies, on land use issues in Mexico and marine fisheries in the United Kingdom, we illustrate how an analysis focused on access deepens our understanding of resilience. We argue that the insights provided by the Theory of Access contribute to an improved theorization of the “social” in social-ecological resilience

Treated Choroidal Melanoma with Late Metastases to the Contralateral Orbit

Choroidal melanoma is the commonest adult primary intraocular tumour,1 and usual sites of secondary spread are to liver, bone and lung. Although delayed recurrence of ipsilateral orbital melanoma is well documented, metastasis to the contralateral orbit is a rarely encountered phenomenon. We describe a case of metastatic spread to the contralateral orbit in a patient 12 years after proton beam radiotherapy of choroidal melanoma

Subchronic oral exposure to benzo(a)pyrene leads to distinct transcriptomic changes in the lungs that are related to carcinogenesis

We have previously shown that acute oral exposure to the environmental carcinogen benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) elicits comparable levels of DNA adducts, but distinct transcriptomic changes, in mouse lungs and livers, the two main BaP bioactivating organs. Oral BaP exposure is predominantly associated with lung cancer and not hepatic cancer in some animal models, suggesting that gene expression differences may provide insight into the drivers of tissue-specific carcinogenesis. In the present study, we examine pulmonary DNA adduct formation, lacZ mutant frequency, and mRNA profiles in adult male MutaMouse following subchronic (28 day) oral exposure to BaP (0, 25, 50, and 75mg/kg/day) and sacrificed 3 days postexposure. The results are compared with those obtained from livers of the same mice (previously published). Although there was a 1.8- to 3.3-fold increase in the levels of DNA adducts in lung compared with liver, the lacZ transgene mutant frequency was similar in both tissues. At the transcriptomic level, a transition from activation of the DNA damage response p53 pathway at the low dose to the induction of genes involved in angiogenesis, evasion of apoptosis and growth signals at the high doses was evident only in the lungs. These results suggest that tissue DNA adducts and mutant frequency are sensitive markers of target tissue exposure and mode of action, whereas early changes in gene expression may provide a better indication of the likelihood of carcinogenic transformation in selected tissues. Moreover, the study provides new information on the underlying mecha- nisms that contribute to tissue-specific responses to BaP

Historical Trajectories of Disaster Risk in Dominica

The calamitous consequences of 2017 Hurricane Maria for the Caribbean island of Dominica highlighted the acute and increasing susceptibility of the region to disasters. Despite increasing international attention to disaster risk reduction, recovery from hazard events can be especially lengthy and difficult for small island developing states. In this article, we build on existing understandings of disaster risk as a physical and social condition, showing that historical processes are fundamental to understanding how conditions of risk emerge and persist over time. We take an integrated approach to analyzing the drivers of risk accumulation, using the example of Dominica, where processes set in motion during the colonial period have shaped the location of people and assets, the degree to which they might be harmed, the societal repercussions of that harm and the prospects for recovery. We focus on the underlying economic vulnerabilities and physical exposure to hazards created by agricultural, economic, and social practices, and successive disaster responses that have constrained recovery. Uncovering these historical drivers and persistent issues, elucidates lessons for pursuing a more resilient development trajectory, including through the promotion of economic restructuring and diversification, and land reform