Open Access Issues and Potential Solutions Workshop

This report provides a summary of the discussion and findings of the Open Access Issues and Potential Solutions workshop held as part of the End-to-End Project. The workshop was highly interactive and feedback received indicated it was extremely valuable, stimulating a useful exchange of ideas

Social Value of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in England and Wales.

The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected areas by 2012 and the recentMarine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a practitioner’s perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we “socially” value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in decision-making

Seeking Spirituality: respecting the social value of coastal recreation resources in England and Wales.

Social value is understood by individuals but is itself a contested concept, although community and participation are key associated terms. Arguably social value of protected areas can be viewed as primarily recreational and aesthetic. Perhaps as a result, social value is often much less considered when compared to environmental and economic aspects when planning the establishment and management of protected areas in coastal locations. Understanding how society values these areas could therefore make a significant difference to optimising management direction and outcomes. Furthermore, understanding non-monetary values could help evaluate trade-offs which can be made between scenarios such as alternative development, management and conservation. Literature on social value touches on many topics including the emotional appreciation of wilderness and theory of visitor management. Ironically, in future, climate change may raise social value at the coast given a public fascination with dramatic storms and sensational rapid change as a result of coastal processes. In order to identify social value, evaluate how it has been applied, and suggest better future integration, research focussing on selected coastal protected areas in England and Wales has taken an inductive grounded theory approach. A combination of practitioner and public interviews were undertaken to inform the design of a normative statement and model of social value. To understand social values at an operational level a detailed ‘zoning chart’ exercise in conjunction with an expert scoring system was applied to four case studies This work has resulted in validating social value criteria and has highlighted the complexities of measuring social value, particularly using a scoring system to rate the criteria. Tranquility, for example, is typically subjective. Zoning charts proved to be a productive data collection tool, allowing visualisation of the criteria. All the data collection phases demonstrated that criteria in the ‘spirituality and natural environment’ theme provided the most social value to the public. Criteria in this theme include areas where it is possible to get away from other people in order to experience tranquillity, isolation and remoteness: experiences of views and open coastline: inspirational opportunities for art, poetry and photography: and an outdoor experience in a place where people want to be

Identification of a human synaptotagmin-1 mutation that perturbs synaptic vesicle cycling

Synaptotagmin-1 (SYT1) is a calcium-binding synaptic vesicle protein that is required for both exocytosis and endocytosis. Here, we describe a human condition associated with a rare variant in SYT1. The individual harboring this variant presented with an early onset dyskinetic movement disorder, severe motor delay, and profound cognitive impairment. Structural MRI was normal, but EEG showed extensive neurophysiological disturbances that included the unusual features of low-frequency oscillatory bursts and enhanced paired-pulse depression of visual evoked potentials. Trio analysis of whole-exome sequence identified a de novo SYT1 missense variant (I368T). Expression of rat SYT1 containing the equivalent human variant in WT mouse primary hippocampal cultures revealed that the mutant form of SYT1 correctly localizes to nerve terminals and is expressed at levels that are approximately equal to levels of endogenous WT protein. The presence of the mutant SYT1 slowed synaptic vesicle fusion kinetics, a finding that agrees with the previously demonstrated role for I368 in calcium-dependent membrane penetration. Expression of the I368T variant also altered the kinetics of synaptic vesicle endocytosis. Together, the clinical features, electrophysiological phenotype, and in vitro neuronal phenotype associated with this dominant negative SYT1 mutation highlight presynaptic mechanisms that mediate human motor control and cognitive development