Millimeter-sized plastics are abundant in most marine surface waters, and known to carry fouling organisms that potentially play key roles in the fate and ecological impacts of plastic pollution. In ...this study we used scanning electron microscopy to characterize biodiversity of organisms on the surface of 68 small floating plastics (length range = 1.7-24.3 mm, median = 3.2 mm) from Australia-wide coastal and oceanic, tropical to temperate sample collections. Diatoms were the most diverse group of plastic colonizers, represented by 14 genera. We also recorded 'epiplastic' coccolithophores (7 genera), bryozoans, barnacles (Lepas spp.), a dinoflagellate (Ceratium), an isopod (Asellota), a marine worm, marine insect eggs (Halobates sp.), as well as rounded, elongated, and spiral cells putatively identified as bacteria, cyanobacteria, and fungi. Furthermore, we observed a variety of plastic surface microtextures, including pits and grooves conforming to the shape of microorganisms, suggesting that biota may play an important role in plastic degradation. This study highlights how anthropogenic millimeter-sized polymers have created a new pelagic habitat for microorganisms and invertebrates. The ecological ramifications of this phenomenon for marine organism dispersal, ocean productivity, and biotransfer of plastic-associated pollutants, remains to be elucidated.
High latitude benthos are globally important in terms of accumulation and storage of ocean carbon, and the feedback this is likely to have on regional warming. Understanding this ecosystem service is ...important but difficult because of complex taxonomic diversity, history and geography of benthic biomass. Using South Georgia as a model location (where the history and geography of benthic biology is relatively well studied) we investigated whether the composition of functional groups were critical to benthic accumulation, immobilization and burial pathway to sequestration-and also aid their study through simplification of identification. We reclassified 1, 2) morphotype and carbon mass data to 13 functional groups, for each sample of 32 sites around the South Georgia continental shelf. We investigated the influence on carbon accumulation, immobilization and sequestration estimate by multiple factors including the compositions of functional groups. Functional groups showed high diversity within and between sites, and within and between habitat types. Carbon storage was not linked to a functional group in particular but accumulation and immobilization increased with the number of functional groups present and the presence of hard substrata. Functional groups were also important to carbon burial rate, which increased with the presence of mixed (hard and soft substrata). Functional groups showed high surrogacy for taxonomic composition and were useful for examining contrasting habitat categorization. Functional groups not only aid marine carbon storage investigation by reducing time and the need for team size and speciality, but also important to benthic carbon pathways per se. There is a distinct geography to seabed carbon storage; seabed boulder-fields are hotspots of carbon accumulation and immobilization, whilst the interface between such boulder-fields and sediments are key places for burial and sequestration.
One of the most ubiquitous and long-lasting recent changes to the surface of our planet is the accumulation and fragmentation
of plastics. Within just a few decades since mass production of plastic ...products commenced in the 1950s, plastic debris has
accumulated in terrestrial environments, in the open ocean, on shorelines of even the most remote islands and in the deep
sea. Annual clean-up operations, costing millions of pounds sterling, are now organized in many countries and on every continent.
Here we document global plastics production and the accumulation of plastic waste. While plastics typically constitute approximately
10 per cent of discarded waste, they represent a much greater proportion of the debris accumulating on shorelines., Mega- and macro-plastics have accumulated in the highest densities in the Northern Hemisphere, adjacent to urban centres,
in enclosed seas and at water convergences (fronts). We report lower densities on remote island shores, on the continental
shelf seabed and the lowest densities (but still a documented presence) in the deep sea and Southern Ocean. The longevity
of plastic is estimated to be hundreds to thousands of years, but is likely to be far longer in deep sea and non-surface polar
environments. Plastic debris poses considerable threat by choking and starving wildlife, distributing non-native and potentially
harmful organisms, absorbing toxic chemicals and degrading to micro-plastics that may subsequently be ingested. Well-established
annual surveys on coasts and at sea have shown that trends in mega- and macro-plastic accumulation rates are no longer uniformly
increasing: rather stable, increasing and decreasing trends have all been reported. The average size of plastic particles
in the environment seems to be decreasing, and the abundance and global distribution of micro-plastic fragments have increased
over the last few decades. However, the environmental consequences of such microscopic debris are still poorly understood.
Species composition, abundance and biodiversity of the South African estuarine invertebrate fauna are known to show marked differentials between seagrass beds and adjacent unvegetated sands in ...enclosed estuarine/marine bays. Such differentials were investigated at four disparate localities in a bay lacking the callianassid bioturbation of other local sites. Here there were no such marked or consistent differences: <50% of differentials were statistically significant, with seagrass showing the lower, not higher, level in half of those. Overall, faunal abundance was lower in seagrass in the ratio of 0.64 : 1, whilst species density was higher but only by 1.13 to 1. Seagrass assemblages at a given locality were more similar to those of the adjacent bare sand than they were to seagrass assemblages at other localities, and likewise in respect of those in the bare sand. This suggests that marked differentials, where they occur, may result not from any supposed favourability of seagrass as a habitat but from the operation of processes within the unvegetated-sediment compartment of the system.
•We examined seagrass vs bare-sediment biodiversity in the absence of bioturbation.•Seagrass supported fewer not more animals than unvegetated sediment.•Species was slightly greater in the seagrass but varied markedly from site to site.•Seagrass sites were more similar to adjacent sands than to other seagrass sites.•And likewise unvegetated sediment sites.
For the first time, intraspecific relationships between the macroecological metrics patchiness (P) and both abundance (A) and occupancy (O) were investigated in a faunal assemblage. As a companion ...study to recent work on interspecific P, A and O patterns at the same localities, intraspecific patterns were documented within each of the more dominant invertebrates forming the seagrass macrobenthos of warm–temperate Knysna estuarine bay (South Africa) and of sub-tropical Moreton Bay (Australia). As displayed interspecifically, individual species showed strong A–O patterns (mean scaling coefficient − 0.76 and mean
R
2
> 0.8). All P–O relations were negative and most (67%) were statistically significant, although weaker (mean
R
2
0.5) than A–O ones; most P–A ones were also negative but fewer (43%) achieved significance, and were even weaker (mean
R
2
0.4); 33% of species showed no significant interrelations of either O or A with P. No species showed only a significant P–A relationship. Compared with interspecific P–A–O data from the same assemblages, power–law scaling exponents were equivalent, but R
2
values were larger. Larviparous species comprised 70% of the total studied, but 94% of those displaying significant patchiness interrelationships; 5 of the 9 showing no P–A or P–O relationships, however, were also larviparous. At Knysna, though not in Moreton Bay, larviparous species also showed higher levels of occupancy than non-larviparous ones, whilst non-larviparous species showed higher levels of patchiness. Dominant Moreton Bay species, but not those at Knysna, exhibited homogeneously sloped P–O relationships.
Gender Bias Experiences of Female Surgical Trainees Barnes, K. Lauren; McGuire, Lauren; Dunivan, Gena ...
Journal of surgical education,
November-December 2019, 2019 Nov - Dec, 2019-11-00, 20191101, Letnik:
76, Številka:
6
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Medical schools now average approximately 50% female students, yet a disproportionate number of women continue to choose nonsurgical over surgical specialties. Once in training, studies indicate that ...pervasive gender stereotypes, sexism and harassment negatively affect female surgeons. The aim of this study is to describe female surgeons’ experiences with gender bias and microaggressions in the workplace during residency and fellowship training, and understand if differences exist in the experiences of trainees in male-dominant vs female-dominant surgical specialties.
A mixed methods approach was used to explore the experiences of female surgical trainees. Participants were recruited from all surgical disciplines at an academic center. Initially, focus groups were used to explore themes that trainees face related to gender bias. A trained moderator conducted all focus groups, which were audio recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis of de-identified transcripts was performed to identify emerging themes. We then created an online survey using the validated 44-question Sexist Microaggression Experiences and Stress Scale to assess frequency and psychologic impact of these events with additional questions developed from the focus groups. The survey was sent to all female residents and fellows at one academic institution.
University of New Mexico Hospital, a tertiary care academic medical center.
Fifteen female surgical trainees participated in focus groups. Thirty-three female surgical trainees participated in the online survey.
Two focus groups including 15 female trainees were conducted, revealing 4 themes: Exclusion, Adaptation, Increased effort, and Development of Resilience Strategies. All participants had experienced gender bias or discrimination during medical school or surgical training. The quantitative survey had a 66% response rate (33/50 female trainees). Significant differences were found in the experience of female trainees in male-dominant vs female-dominant specialties, with those in male-dominant fields often reporting more frequent, severe, and stressful microaggression experiences. When describing how gender bias would affect their future in medicine, trainees in male-dominant specialties were more likely to report that due to gender bias, they “may leave medicine/retire early” (33% vs 6%, p = 0.040) and that they “would not recommend my profession to trainees or family members” (40% vs 6%, p = 0.015).”
Female surgical trainees continue to experience gender bias. A culture of sexism leads to physical and social adaptations to fit into the role of surgeon. Participants expressed significant effort to sustain this level of adaptation, leading to fatigue and creation of resilience mechanisms. The environment in which a trainee operates (male-dominant vs female-dominant) significantly impacts their experience. Those experiencing more bias were less likely to recommend their specialty and reported plans to leave medicine earlier. Culture change across institutions and system-level interventions are necessary to create meaningful and sustainable change that improves the experience of female surgical trainees.
This paper focuses on a recurrent practice observed in UK primary care data - how physicians use pre-recommendations: action sequences that when initiated post-diagnosis are recognisably preliminary ...to the drug treatment recommendations that they contingently project. Data are drawn from recorded primary care consultations collected in England. Pre-recommendations consist of physician requests for information about prior medicines such as, What've you tried taking? or Have you taken anything so far? Patient responses subsequently shape the first part of the base treatment recommendation pair. These preliminaries can help physicians manage potential obstacles to patient acceptance: by avoiding prescribing something a patient is already taking, or has tried and found to be ineffective, and by accommodating concerns such as side effects or practical barriers to acceptance. Pre-recommendations are a strategy for convincing/persuading whilst allowing physicians to avoid making an ill-fitted recommendation that might be resisted or rejected as unwanted or unnecessary.
A substantial body of evidence points to the heritability of dietary preferences. While vegetarianism has been practiced for millennia in various societies, its practitioners remain a small minority ...of people worldwide, and the role of genetics in choosing a vegetarian diet is not well understood. Dietary choices involve an interplay between the physiologic effects of dietary items, their metabolism, and taste perception, all of which are strongly influenced by genetics. In this study, we used a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify loci associated with strict vegetarianism in UK Biobank participants. Comparing 5,324 strict vegetarians to 329,455 controls, we identified one SNP on chromosome 18 that is associated with vegetarianism at the genome-wide significant level (rs72884519, beta = -0.11, P = 4.997 x 10.sup.-8 ), and an additional 201 suggestively significant variants. Four genes are associated with rs72884519: TMEM241, RIOK3, NPC1, and RMC1. Using the Functional Mapping and Annotation (FUMA) platform and the Multi-marker Analysis of GenoMic Annotation (MAGMA) tool, we identified 34 genes with a possible role in vegetarianism, 3 of which are GWAS-significant based on gene-level analysis: RIOK3, RMC1, and NPC1. Several of the genes associated with vegetarianism, including TMEM241, NPC1, and RMC1, have important functions in lipid metabolism and brain function, raising the possibility that differences in lipid metabolism and their effects on the brain may underlie the ability to subsist on a vegetarian diet. These results support a role for genetics in choosing a vegetarian diet and open the door to future studies aimed at further elucidating the physiologic pathways involved in vegetarianism.
Macroplastics at sea around Antarctica Barnes, David K.A.; Walters, Adam; Gonçalves, Leandra
Marine environmental research,
08/2010, Letnik:
70, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
More so than at any previous time, there is a heightened awareness of the amount of plastic in the environment, it’s spread to even remote localities and the multiple influences of this on organisms. ...In the austral summer of 2007/08 Greenpeace and British Antarctic Survey ships (MV Esperanza and RRS James Clark Ross respectively) conducted the first co-ordinated joint marine debris survey of the planet’s most remote seas around East and West Antarctica to reveal floating macroplastics. With observations also made from the ice patrol vessel HMS Endurance in the same season and seabed samples collected from the RRS James Clark Ross, this was the widest survey for plastics ever undertaken around Antarctica.
The 2008 visit of RRS James Clark Ross to the Amundsen Sea breached two last frontiers; the last and most remote sea from which biological samples and plastic debris have been reported. A plastic cup and two fishing buoys were seen in the Durmont D’Urville and Davis seas while two pieces of plastic packaging and a fishing buoy were observed in the Amundsen Sea. Agassiz trawls revealed rich biodiversity on the Amundsen (and south Bellingshausen) seabed but no sunken plastic pieces. We found no microplastics in five epibenthic sledge samples (300 μm mesh) from the Amundsen seabed. The seabeds immediately surrounding continental Antarctica are probably the last environments on the planet yet to be reached by plastics, but with pieces floating into the surface of the Amundsen Sea this seems likely to change soon. Our knowledge now touches every sea but so does our legacy of lost and discarded plastic.
To evaluate the effect of presenting positively attribute-framed side effect information on COVID-19 booster vaccine intention relative to standard negatively-framed wording and a no-intervention ...control.
A representative sample of Australian adults (N = 1204) were randomised to one of six conditions within a factorial design: Framing (Positive; Negative; Control) × Vaccine (Familiar (Pfizer); Unfamiliar (Moderna)).
Negative Framing involved presenting the likelihood of experiencing side effects (e.g., heart inflammation is very rare, 1 in every 80,000 will be affected), whereas Positive Framing involved presenting the same information but as the likelihood of not experiencing side effects (e.g., 79,999 in every 80,000 will not be affected).
Booster vaccine intention measured pre- and post-intervention.
Participants were more familiar with the Pfizer vaccine (t(1203) = 28.63, p <.001, Cohen’s dz = 0.83). Positive Framing (M = 75.7, SE = 0.9, 95% CI = 73.9, 77.4) increased vaccine intention relative to Negative Framing (M = 70.7, SE = 0.9, 95% CI = 68.9, 72.4) overall (F(1, 1192) = 4.68, p =.031, ηp2 = 0.004). Framing interacted with Vaccine and Baseline Intention (F(2, 1192) = 6.18, p =.002, ηp2 = 0.01). Positive Framing was superior, or at least equal, to Negative Framing and Control at increasing Booster Intention, irrespective of participants’ pre-intervention level of intent and vaccine type. Side effect worry and perceived severity mediated the effect of Positive vs. Negative Framing across vaccines.
Positive framing of side effect information appears superior for increasing vaccine intent relative to the standard negative wording currently used.
See: aspredicted.org/LDX_2ZL.
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