Marine fish stocks are an important part of the world food system and are particularly important for many of the poorest people of the world. Most existing analyses suggest overfishing is increasing, ...and there is widespread concern that fish stocks are decreasing throughout most of the world. We assembled trends in abundance and harvest rate of stocks that are scientifically assessed, constituting half of the reported global marine fish catch. For these stocks, on average, abundance is increasing and is at proposed target levels. Compared with regions that are intensively managed, regions with less-developed fisheries management have, on average, 3-fold greater harvest rates and half the abundance as assessed stocks. Available evidence suggests that the regions without assessments of abundance have little fisheries management, and stocks are in poor shape. Increased application of area-appropriate fisheries science recommendations and management tools are still needed for sustaining fisheries in places where they are lacking.
Market-based approaches to seafood sustainability have gained popularity in the last decade. Market-based tools, such as certification and ratings systems, enable seafood companies along supply ...chains to engage in sustainability initiatives while reducing business risks. Yet, these approaches are predominantly utilized in Global North markets and often evaluate performance against standards that build upon resource-intensive, mainstream fisheries management models. These management models have yielded successful outcomes in industrial fisheries, mainly in the Global North, where science, management, and compliance authorities are well-resourced. In contrast, artisanal and small-scale fisheries in the Global South have seen limited success in applying mainstream management approaches. Co-management approaches based on secure tenure rights, which emphasize effective partnerships between management authorities and resource users with specific rights over the resources, have shown better outcomes in these contexts. Despite this, market-based tools have largely overlooked co-management principles and tenure rights in their standards. To address this gap, this paper introduces two step-wise evaluative methods designed for the ratings system FishSource, aiming to score whether fishers enjoy secure tenure rights and effectively participate in decision making. The proposed methods use available secondary data to evaluate these crucial aspects of well-managed and equitable small-scale fisheries, while aligning with international policy instruments like the Food and Agriculture Organization Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Abstract Most fisheries are conducted without any scientific knowledge about the size and productivity of the stocks that support them. This navigation in the dark in most fisheries is a major ...obstacle in making them sustainable sources of nutrition for people in general and income for fishers and other economic actors along supply chains. Fisheries that have not been assessed generally are data‐intermediate and data‐poor, the latter usually having annual time series of landings as the single piece of data available. A major effort in the last two decades has been directed toward developing ‘catch‐only’ stock assessment methods, although some of these methods have been tested and found deficient. Here we provide a novel approach to using annual landing time series as the single source of data to qualitatively judge the condition of un‐assessed stocks using frequentist cumulative probability ogives, both in terms of stock biomass and fishing mortality. A meta‐analysis of the FishSource database allowed us to infer statistical patterns from hundreds of assessed fisheries and thousands of annual landings, biomass, and fishing mortality observations. Four stock‐management types were considered separately in the analysis: short‐lived and others (mid‐ to long‐lived) stocks, controlled or not controlled by catch limits. Obtained cumulative probability ogives provide clear evaluations of stock biomass and fishing mortality trends in all four stock‐management types, leading to actionable information on probable current status and future trends. Using these probability ogives, we developed decision trees that lead to qualitative scores on the exploitation status of un‐assessed stocks.
As part of environmental health surveillance programs related to solid waste incinerators located near Lisbon and on Madeira Island, human biomonitoring projects have been implemented in Portugal, ...some of them focused on cross-sectional surveys of heavy metals in blood. One of the general aims of these programs is to provide Portuguese data on the extent and pattern of human exposure to the pollutants potentially released in the stack gases from the incinerators, namely heavy metals. The present investigation reports information specifically on blood lead levels of newborn–mother pairs living in the vicinity of the incinerators under study, as well as of statistically similar participants living outside the exposed area. For Lisbon, lead levels determined at the baseline period (T0), as well as three subsequent evaluations of potential specific impacts of the incinerator (T1, T2 and T3) are described in order to investigate spatial and temporal trends of human exposure to lead. Available data for Madeira, namely lead levels in blood from the study population before the incinerator started operation, is also described. For Lisbon, analyses showed a statistically significant decrease of lead concentrations in maternal
(
p
<
0.001
)
and umbilical cord blood
(
p
<
0.001
)
during the whole monitoring period. Practically “overt” transplacental exposure to lead was observed only in the Lisbon biomonitoring project and for some cross-sectional surveys. Baseline levels for Madeira were the lowest found in all observations already performed in both programs (maternal and umbilical cord mean lead levels of 0.4
μg/dl and 0.3
μg/dl, respectively). No statistical associations have been found between lead levels in blood and age neither for global populations from Lisbon and Madeira nor for specific groups included in the different observational periods.
Social and environmental awareness has in recent years become an increasingly weighted factor in many investors’ funding allocation decisions due to concerns that their investment could contribute to ...industries practicing human rights abuses, have deleterious impacts on nature and ecosystems or just be misaligned with their personal or political beliefs. This concept involves a close analysis of practices and commitments of the companies at stake in order to inform investment decisions. Impact investment is a form of ethical investment that takes action for improvements while generating financial returns. Fisheries are prime candidates for impact investment initiatives given their potential as ecologically sustainable sources of protein but also their widespread mismanagement, but they have not yet been widely targeted by impact investment. Overfished fisheries could provide both greater supply and economic returns but the respite needed by the fishery in order to recover constitutes a hardship to fishers that are dependent on annual incomes. Investors could bridge that gap, covering any initial losses while the fishery recovers and later benefiting from the gains when the fishery reaches its sustained maximum returns.The aim of the current project is to set up a framework that allows for the definition of a market instrument aimed at correcting existing imbalances in the economic model for fisheries management. To this end, optimal bioeconomic utilization is explored, and a system proposed to internalize rights and responsibilities to the fishery. Within this framework, an instrument is outlined providing the required incentives for fisheries to finance themselves to ensure sustainability. The project includes considerations on the design of this instrument as well as some considerations on its pricing.
Determination of environmental impacts on reproductive health and specifically on the incidence of early spontaneous abortion requires accurate estimates of the latter. This negative reproductive ...outcome can be detected by the pattern of elevation and decline of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels near and shortly beyond the expected time of implantation, requiring daily biomonitoring of hCG levels during the relevant period of the menstrual cycle. Prospective pregnancy studies to assess effects of potentially toxic exposures on human reproductive outcomes can involve up to three menstrual cycles and a huge number of samples in each, for the quantification of the inherently very low hCG levels usually can be determined only in serum. The invasive nature of blood collection, the number of samples needed for the development of prospective studies, and the lack of quantitative methods for the determination of low hCG levels in urine point to the need for collecting urine rather than blood and make it imperative to develop suitable quantitative methods for biomonitoring of very low levels of hCG in urine. This paper describes the development and validation procedures of an automated solid-phase two-site chemiluminescent immunometric assay for the quantification of urinary hCG in early pregnancy and early pregnancy loss. For the validation, both undiluted and diluted urine and control samples have been prepared. From the results, it can be concluded that the assay has a calibration range that extends to 5000
mIU/ml, with a detection limit of approximately 1.2
mIU/ml, practically identical to that found by the IMMULITE 2000 manufacturer's validation study. The intra- and inter-assay precision ranges up to a maximum of around 7%, meaning that the practical limit for functional sensitivity can be established as low as 10%. This means that the immunoassay from DPC
® can identify, with relatively high confidence, non-pregnant women and the typical “rise and fall” pattern of early pregnancy loss through analysis of urine samples. Results also lead to the conclusion that there is a very good agreement between expected and observed urinary hCG levels indicative of good immunoassay accuracy for the studied range of hCG concentrations. In terms of analyte stability, it can be concluded that urinary hCG is stable under the expected conditions required for ongoing investigations that include temperatures of 2–8
°C for up to 48
h and temperatures of around −20
°C for longer periods that can extend to over 3 months.
Abstract Background In keeping with the fundamental practice of transparency in the discussion and resolution of ethics conflicts raised by research, a summary of ethics issues raised during ...Portuguese biomonitoring in health surveillance and research is presented and, where applicable, their resolution is described. Methods Projects underway aim to promote the surveillance of public health related to the presence of solid waste incinerators or to study associations between human exposure to environmental factors and adverse health effects. The methodological approach involves biomonitoring of heavy metals, dioxins and/or other persistent organic pollutants in tissues including blood, human milk and both scalp and pubic hair in groups such as the general population, children, pregnant women or women attempting pregnancy. As such, the projects entail the recruitment of individuals representing different demographic and health conditions, the collection of body tissues and personal data, and the processing of the data and results. Results The issue of autonomy is raised during the recruitment of participants and during the collection of samples and data. This right is protected by the requirement for prior written, informed consent from the participant or, in the case of children, from their guardian. Recruitment has been successful, among eligible participants, in spite of incentives rarely being offered. The exception has been in obtaining guardians' consent for children's participation, particularly for blood sampling. In an attempt to mitigate the harm-benefit ratio, current research efforts include alternative less invasive biomarkers. Surveys are currently being conducted under contract as independent biomonitoring actions and as such, must be explicitly disclosed as a potential conflict of interests. Communication of results to participants is in general only practised when a health issue is present and corrective action possible. Concerning human milk a careful approach is taken, considering breast-feeding's proven benefits. Conclusion No national legislation currently accounts for the surveillance component of biomonitoring as distinct from research. Ethics issues arising within the domain of research are resolved according to available regulations. For issues encountered during surveillance, the same principles are used as guidance, completed by the authors' best judgement and relevant ethics committees' findings.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In keeping with the fundamental practice of transparency in the discussion and resolution of ethics conflicts raised by research, a summary of ethics issues raised during Portuguese biomonitoring in ...health surveillance and research is presented and, where applicable, their resolution is described.
Projects underway aim to promote the surveillance of public health related to the presence of solid waste incinerators or to study associations between human exposure to environmental factors and adverse health effects. The methodological approach involves biomonitoring of heavy metals, dioxins and/or other persistent organic pollutants in tissues including blood, human milk and both scalp and pubic hair in groups such as the general population, children, pregnant women or women attempting pregnancy. As such, the projects entail the recruitment of individuals representing different demographic and health conditions, the collection of body tissues and personal data, and the processing of the data and results.
The issue of autonomy is raised during the recruitment of participants and during the collection of samples and data. This right is protected by the requirement for prior written, informed consent from the participant or, in the case of children, from their guardian. Recruitment has been successful, among eligible participants, in spite of incentives rarely being offered. The exception has been in obtaining guardians' consent for children's participation, particularly for blood sampling. In an attempt to mitigate the harm-benefit ratio, current research efforts include alternative less invasive biomarkers.Surveys are currently being conducted under contract as independent biomonitoring actions and as such, must be explicitly disclosed as a potential conflict of interests. Communication of results to participants is in general only practised when a health issue is present and corrective action possible. Concerning human milk a careful approach is taken, considering breast-feeding's proven benefits.
No national legislation currently accounts for the surveillance component of biomonitoring as distinct from research. Ethics issues arising within the domain of research are resolved according to available regulations. For issues encountered during surveillance, the same principles are used as guidance, completed by the authors' best judgement and relevant ethics committees' findings.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common skin cancer in the white population. Nonsurgical treatments are first-line alternatives in superficial BCC (sBCC); therefore, differentiating between ...sBCC and non-sBCC is of major relevance for the clinician. Scraping cytology possesses several advantages, such as an earlier diagnosis and scarring absence, in comparison to a biopsy. Nevertheless, previous studies reported difficulties in differentiating the different BCC subtypes. The objective of this study was to determine the capability and accuracy of scraping cytology to differentiate between sBCC and non-sBCC.
In this retrospective study, cytological samples of histologically confirmed BCC were examined. Select cytological features were correlated to BCC subtypes (sBCC or non-sBCC).
A total of 84 BCC samples were included (29 sBCC; 55 non-sBCC). An inverse correlation between the diagnosis of sBCC and the presence of mucin, dehiscence, and grade of atypia in the basal cells was observed. The presence of medium and large basal cell clusters correlated directly to a sBCC diagnosis. The presence of clear cells is strongly associated with sBCC. Therefore, Conclusion: Scraping cytology is reliable in differentiating sBCC from other BCC subtypes.
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