In her book Imperial Bodies, E. M. Collingham has described how the European experience of India was "intensely physical." It began on the sea journey from Britain with the sufferings of seasickness ...regarded as almost inevitable. On disembarkation the Imperial Bodies were confronted by exotic and diverse smells, a hostile and potentially debilitating climate, and the threat of frequent physical illness and the dangers from insects, snakes and other wild animals. She showed how from the second half of the nineteenth century the body of the British coloniser came to symbolise Western racial and civilisational superiority. The civil servant, as a senior agent of British manhood, became an embodiment of colonial power and his healthy body emphasised sporting prowess, the moral character of his class and muscular and physical power.
Background
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of rectal adenocarcinoma in the world. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used for preoperative staging of rectal cancer. The accuracy of ...MRI varies, which may affect treatment decisions. The accuracy of MRI for pretreatment staging of rectal adenocarcinoma in a provincial centre in New Zealand has not been investigated. We aimed to assess the accuracy of MRI for pretreatment staging of early rectal adenocarcinoma in patients managed via the MidCentral Regional Cancer Service Multidisciplinary Team.
Methods
A retrospective review of the MidCentral Regional Cancer Service Multidisciplinary Team database identified 54 patients with rectal adenocarcinoma who proceeded to surgery without preoperative long course chemo‐radiotherapy. The pretreatment MRI stage was compared with the histological stage for each of these patients.
Results
MRI correctly staged the tumour invasion (T stage) in 24 patients (44% of cases), and lymph node stage in 38 patients (70% of cases). There was moderate agreement between MRI and histological staging for tumour invasion (κ = 0.46) and for lymph node involvement (κ = 0.41). Twenty‐one cases were under‐staged and five cases were over‐staged with regards to invasion of the muscularis propria. Fourteen cases were under‐staged, and two cases over‐staged in regards to lymph node involvement.
Conclusion
Although MRI provides important pretreatment staging information for rectal adenocarcinoma, in our experience MRI is not as accurate as in other reports. Multidisciplinary teams managing patients with rectal adenocarcinoma should be aware of the limitations of MRI for pretreatment staging.
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Unearthed: impacts of the Tellus surveys of the north of Ireland details how this unprecedented land and air survey of hidden Ireland rewards us with a more complete understanding of the natural ...history of this region. It tells an epic story of how Ireland’s geological past will sustain its future'. Professor Iain Stewart MBE Between 2004 and 2013, €15 million of government and EU funding was spent on high-resolution, airborne geophysical and geochemical sampling surveys of Northern Ireland and the six northern counties of the Republic of Ireland. This book presents some of the findings of the first two stages of Tellus, the largest collaborative cross-border programme of geoscience surveys ever undertaken on the island of Ireland. Tellus is a concerted cross-border investment in the terrestrial geosciences, intended both to stimulate exploration for natural resources and to generate essential data for environmental management. A huge volume of geoscientific data has already been produced and analysed by researchers in Ireland, the UK and beyond. In this book, scientists who have worked with the Tellus data reflect on the outputs and impacts in terms of the economy, the environment, energy, agriculture and ecology.
Community health workers (CHWs) are critical members of the public health workforce, who connect the individuals they serve with resources, advocate for communities facing health and racial ...inequities, and improve the quality of healthcare. However, there are typically limited professional and career building pathways for CHWs, which contribute to low wages and lack of career advancement, further resulting in turnover, attrition, and workforce instability.
The Center for Community Health Alignment (CCHA), within the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina, utilized a mixed-method data collection strategy to provide a more in-depth understanding of this issue and ways that employers, advocates, and CHWs can address it.
Themes across data sources emphasized the importance of retaining skilled and experienced CHWs and educating other health professions about CHWs' critical roles, and reported that doing so will result in decreased attrition professional growth, and improved program quality. CHWs and allies concluded that higher wages, valuing lived experience over formal education, and participation in additional training opportunities should be the primary factors considered for career advancement.
Utilizing input from experienced CHWs and CHW allies nationally, this article describes the importance of supporting CHW career advancement, shares best practices, and suggestions for designing strategies that organizations/employers can use to improve CHW career pathways to better support the CHW workforce and reduce attrition.
Senescence is integral to the flowering plant life-cycle. Senescence-like processes occur also in non-angiosperm land plants, algae and photosynthetic prokaryotes. Increasing numbers of genes have ...been assigned functions in the regulation and execution of angiosperm senescence. At the same time there has been a large expansion in the number and taxonomic spread of plant sequences in the genome databases. The present paper uses these resources to make a study of the evolutionary origins of angiosperm senescence based on a survey of the distribution, across plant and microbial taxa, and expression of senescence-related genes.
Phylogeny analyses were carried out on protein sequences corresponding to genes with demonstrated functions in angiosperm senescence. They include proteins involved in chlorophyll catabolism and its control, homeoprotein transcription factors, metabolite transporters, enzymes and regulators of carotenoid metabolism and of anthocyanin biosynthesis. Evolutionary timelines for the origins and functions of particular genes were inferred from the taxonomic distribution of sequences homologous to those of angiosperm senescence-related proteins. Turnover of the light energy transduction apparatus is the most ancient element in the senescence syndrome. By contrast, the association of phenylpropanoid metabolism with senescence, and integration of senescence with development and adaptation mediated by transcription factors, are relatively recent innovations of land plants. An extended range of senescence-related genes of Arabidopsis was profiled for coexpression patterns and developmental relationships and revealed a clear carotenoid metabolism grouping, coordinated expression of genes for anthocyanin and flavonoid enzymes and regulators and a cluster pattern of genes for chlorophyll catabolism consistent with functional and evolutionary features of the pathway.
The expression and phylogenetic characteristics of senescence-related genes allow a framework to be constructed of decisive events in the evolution of the senescence syndrome of modern land-plants. Combining phylogenetic, comparative sequence, gene expression and morphogenetic information leads to the conclusion that biochemical, cellular, integrative and adaptive systems were progressively added to the ancient primary core process of senescence as the evolving plant encountered new environmental and developmental contexts.
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Background
Post‐operative atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common complication of oesophagectomy and thought to signal a complicated post‐operative course. AF is associated with prolonged admissions, ...increased healthcare costs and inpatient mortality. However, the impact of post‐operative AF on long‐term outcomes remains uncertain.
Methods
Patients undergoing open Ivor‐Lewis oesophagectomy from 1994 to 2014 at Palmerston North Hospital, New Zealand, were retrospectively evaluated. Demographic, perioperative and tumour variables were collected. Regression models were used to identify independent predictors of AF and assess post‐discharge survival following oesophagectomy.
Results
In total, 89 patients were included. New‐onset AF developed post‐operatively in 27 patients (30%). Median follow‐up was 6.3 years. Logistic regression identified volume of intravenous fluid in the first 24 h post‐operatively as a predictor of AF. Post‐discharge survival was predicted by AF occurrence (hazard ratio (HR): 2.99, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.37–6.53, P = 0.006), preoperative chemoradiotherapy (HR: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.20–0.91, P = 0.03), 1–4 positive lymph nodes (HR: 2.29, 95% CI: 1.06–4.96, P = 0.04), ≥5 positive nodes (HR: 2.95, 95% CI: 1.25–6.94, P = 0.01) and year of operation from 2008 to 2014 (HR: 0.30, 95% CI: 0.12–0.75, P = 0.01).
Conclusion
Post‐operative AF was associated with poorer long‐term survival following oesophagectomy in this cohort. Further research should evaluate the influence of AF on cardiovascular and oncological outcomes following oesophagectomy.
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The aim of this book is to catalyse global interest in the pursuit of transformational changes in natural resource and environmental management. It is shown that transformational policy reforms ...involve fundamental shifts in strategy with far-reaching consequences for the structure of industries, the way people behave and the resources they use.
Transformational reforms typically involve a decision to change a suite of institutional arrangements that will result, within a short period of time, in a paradigm shift and the emergence of an approach that will be recognised as being totally different to the arrangements that were previously in place. Transformational change is well established in business and can deliver outstanding results. In the world of policy development, however, many transformational policy reforms flounder. Unlike incremental policy reforms, they are often seen to be politically risky and prone to failure.
Using examples of success and failure, coupled with insights from practitioners and academics who have succeeded in getting transformational reforms implemented, this book presents a set of guidelines for excellence in the pursuit of transformational policy reforms. It includes detailed case studies from Australia, China, Europe, New Zealand, South-east Asia and the USA.
Mike Young was the Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser Chair in Australian Studies at Harvard University, USA. He holds a Professorial Chair in Water and Environmental Policy at Adelaide University, Australia, and is an Honorary Professor at the University of College London, UK, and a Research Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Sustainable Environmental Policy Solutions, USA.
Christine Esau is a journalist and research editor based in Australia, with a particular interest in compelling environmental dialogues.
"Young and Esau have produced a very valuable primer for policy makers and stakeholders at different levels. The book is well illustrated with diagrams and tables and benefited from the reflection possible while editing the work at the Rockefeller funded Bellagio Centre in Italy." - John E Leake in the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics (July 2018)
1. Transformational Change: In Search of Excellence
Mike Young
2. Significant, Sustainable Environmental Reform in Any Democracy is Difficult
Kevin Rudd
3. Unpacking the Dynamics of Successful Change: Ten Insights from the Private Sector
Rebecca Henderson
4. An Assessment Framework for Resilient Public Policy
R. Quentin Grafton and Walter Reinhardt
5. Lessons from Reforming Fossil-fuel Subsidy Regimes
Georgeta Vidican
6. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Ongoing Failure to Capture Synergies in Natural Resource Management (Australia)
Andrew Campbell
7. Never Waste a Crisis: An Opportunity to bring Robust Water-policy Reform to California
Dustin Garrick
8. The Development of Water Markets in China
Scott M. Moore
9. Drought Policy: Lessons and Strategies to Change the Transformational Game
Deborah C. Peterson
10. The Collision of Aspiration and Reality in Payments for Ecosystem Services
James Salzman
11. Angling for a Solution: Fisheries Management and the Individual Transferrable Quota Regime in Aotearoa (New Zealand)
Adam Banasiak
12. New York City’s Payment for Ecosystem Services: Providing Clean Water for Millions
Tim Purinton and Marina LeGree
13. Empowering Consumers: Forest Stewardship Council Leadership in Internationally Traded Product Certification
Juliette Gundy and Julia Radice
14. The Art of Good Governance: Analysing Water Management Success in Phnom Penh
Timothy Grant
15. Guidelines for Transformational Change in Environmental and Natural Resource Management
Mike Young and Christine Esau
This paper assesses the impact of general intelligence, as well as specific personality traits, and aspects of motivation, on performance, potential, and advancement of senior leaders. A ...questionnaire survey was conducted on the full population of 381 senior officers in the Royal Navy with an 80% response rate. Performance, potential, and rate of advancement were established direct from the organization's appraisal system; intelligence, personality traits and motivation were assessed, at the time of the study, using the Verify G+ Test, Occupational Personality Questionnaire, and Motivation Questionnaire. Findings suggest differences in motivation are more important than differences in general intelligence, or personality traits, in predicting assessed performance, potential within, and actual rate of advancement to, senior leadership positions. This is a rare example of a study into very senior leaders, validated against both formal appraisal data and actual rates of advancement. As a consequence of this study the Royal Navy has started to use psychometric-based assessments as part of the selection and development of its most Senior Officers.
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