Abstract
Many species have been intentionally introduced to new regions for their benefits. Some of these alien species cause damage, others do not (or at least have not yet). There are several ...approaches to address this problem: prohibit taxa that will cause damage, try to limit damages while preserving benefits, or promote taxa that are safe. In the present article, we unpack the safe list approach, which we define as “a list of taxa alien to the region of interest that are considered of sufficiently low risk of invasion and impact that the taxa can be widely used without concerns of negative impacts.” We discuss the potential use of safe lists in the management of biological invasions; disentangle aspects related to the purpose, development, implementation, and impact of safe lists; and provide guidance for those considering to develop and implement such lists.
Styrene is an established neurotoxicant at occupational levels, but effects at levels relevant to the general population have not been studied. We examined the neurologic effects of environmental ...styrene exposure among U.S. Gulf coast residents.
We used National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) 2011 estimates of ambient styrene concentrations to assign exposure levels for 21,962 non-diabetic Gulf state residents, and additionally measured blood styrene concentration in a subset of participants (n = 874). Neurologic symptoms, as well as detailed covariate information, were ascertained via telephone interview. We used log-binomial regression to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) for cross-sectional associations between both ambient and blood styrene levels and self-reported neurologic symptoms. We estimated associations independently for ten unique symptoms, as well as for the presence of any neurologic, central nervous system (CNS), or peripheral nervous system (PNS) symptoms. We also examined heterogeneity of associations with estimated ambient styrene levels by race and sex.
One-third of participants reported at least one neurologic symptom. The highest quartile of estimated ambient styrene was associated with one or more neurologic (PR, 1.12; 95% CI: 1.07,1.18), CNS (PR, 1.17; 95% CI: 1.11,1.25), and PNS (PR, 1.16; 95% CI: 1.09,1.25) symptom. Results were less consistent for biomarker analyses, but blood styrene level was suggestively associated with nausea (PR, 1.78; 95% CI: 1.04, 3.03). In stratified analyses, we observed the strongest effects among non-White participants.
Increasing estimated ambient styrene concentration was consistently associated with increased prevalence of neurologic symptoms. Associations between blood styrene levels and some neurologic symptoms were suggestive. Environmental styrene exposure levels may be sufficient to elicit symptomatic neurotoxic effects.
•Increasing ambient styrene is consistently associated with neurologic symptoms.•The strongest associations are among non-White participants.•Associations between blood styrene and neurologic symptoms are only suggestive.
Epilepsy is a common neurological condition resulting in recurrent seizures. Research evidence in long-term conditions suggests that patients benefit from self-management education and that this may ...improve quality of life (QoL). Epilepsy self-management education has yet to be tested in a UK setting.
To determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Self-Management education for people with poorly controlled epILEpsy SMILE (UK).
A parallel pragmatic randomised controlled trial.
Participants were recruited from eight hospitals in London and south-east England.
Adults aged ≥ 16 years with epilepsy and two or more epileptic seizures in the past year, who were currently being prescribed antiepileptic drugs.
A 2-day group self-management course alongside treatment as usual (TAU). The control group received TAU.
The primary outcome is QoL in people with epilepsy at 12-month follow-up using the Quality Of Life In Epilepsy 31-P (QOLIE-31-P) scale. Other outcomes were seizure control, impact of epilepsy, medication adverse effects, psychological distress, perceived stigma, self-mastery and medication adherence. Cost-effectiveness analyses and a process evaluation were undertaken.
A 1 : 1 ratio between trial arms using fixed block sizes of two.
Participants were not blinded to their group allocation because of the nature of the study. Researchers involved in data collection and analysis remained blinded throughout.
The trial completed successfully. A total of 404 participants were enrolled in the study SMILE (UK),
= 205; TAU,
= 199 with 331 completing the final follow-up at 12 months SMILE (UK),
= 163; TAU,
= 168. In the intervention group, 61.5% completed all sessions of the course. No adverse events were found to be related to the intervention. At baseline, participants had a mean age of 41.7 years standard deviation (SD) 14.1 years, and had epilepsy for a median of 18 years. The mean QOLIE-31-P score for the whole group at baseline was 66.0 out of 100.0 (SD 14.2). Clinically relevant levels of anxiety symptoms were reported in 53.6% of the group and depression symptoms in 28.0%. The results following an intention-to-treat analysis showed no change in any measures at the 12-month follow-up QOLIE-31-P: SMILE (UK) mean: 67.4, SD 13.5; TAU mean: 69.5, SD 14.8. The cost-effectiveness study showed that SMILE (UK) was possibly cost-effective but was also associated with lower QoL. The process evaluation with 20 participants revealed that a group course increased confidence by sharing with others and improved self-management behaviours.
For people with epilepsy and persistent seizures, a 2-day self-management education course is cost-saving, but does not improve QoL after 12-months or reduce anxiety or depression symptoms. A psychological intervention may help with anxiety and depression. Interviewed participants reported attending a group course increased their confidence and helped them improve their self-management.
More research is needed on self-management courses, with psychological components and integration with routine monitoring.
Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN57937389.
This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in
; Vol. 22, No. 21. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information.
Research consistently shows that right‐wing ideological adherents are more likely to deny climate change. However, less is known about how right‐wing ideological subtypes are uniquely related to ...climate change denial, as well as what explains these relationships. This study examines whether threat to the socioeconomic system in the form of climate change mitigation policies, referred to as Climate Change Mitigation Threat (CCMT), mediates the relationships between Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) subtypes and four forms of climate change denial (existence denial, human cause denial, impact denial and climate science denial). U.S. participants (N = 334; Mage = 34.70, SD = 5.98) were recruited via Amazon MTurk. When shared variance in the predictors was accounted for, we found that: (a) Conventionalism (RWA‐C) positively predicted all forms of climate change denial; (b) Dominance (SDO‐D) positively predicted existence denial; (c) Anti‐Egalitarianism (SDO‐E) positively predicted both human cause and impact denial; and (d) Aggression (RWA‐A) negatively predicted existence denial. All significant direct relationships were partially mediated by CCMT, except for the direct paths between SDO‐D and existence denial, and RWA‐A and existence denial. These findings suggest that right‐wing adherents who conform to societal norms and prefer unequal social systems may deny climate change partly due to a perception that mitigation strategies proposed to combat climate change threaten the existing socioeconomic system.
Movements of wide-ranging top predators can now be studied effectively using satellite and archival telemetry. However, the motivations underlying movements remain difficult to determine because ...trajectories are seldom related to key biological gradients, such as changing prey distributions. Here, we use a dynamic prey landscape of zooplankton biomass in the north-east Atlantic Ocean to examine active habitat selection in the plankton-feeding basking shark Cetorhinus maximus. The relative success of shark searches across this landscape was examined by comparing prey biomass encountered by sharks with encounters by random-walk simulations of 'model' sharks. Movements of transmitter-tagged sharks monitored for 964 days (16 754 km estimated minimum distance) were concentrated on the European continental shelf in areas characterized by high seasonal productivity and complex prey distributions. We show movements by adult and sub-adult sharks yielded consistently higher prey encounter rates than 90% of random-walk simulations. Behavioural patterns were consistent with basking sharks using search tactics structured across multiple scales to exploit the richest prey areas available in preferred habitats. Simple behavioural rules based on learned responses to previously encountered prey distributions may explain the high performances. This study highlights how dynamic prey landscapes enable active habitat selection in large predators to be investigated from a trophic perspective, an approach that may inform conservation by identifying critical habitat of vulnerable species.
During the summer of 2021, western Canada experienced a deadly heat event. From the first heat alert to postevent reporting, thousands of media articles were published that reference the heat event. ...However, a gap remains in understanding how this communication chain-from the release of a public heat alert to information shared through media outlets to the public-currently operates to disseminate heat-related messaging across Canada.
To understand the role of digital media in delivering heat-health messaging during an extreme heat event in Canada.
A qualitative content analysis was conducted using Canadian news articles published on the 2021 Heat Dome between June 2021 and February 2022 (n = 2909). The coding frame was designed to align with the basic framework for information gathering used in journalism (who, what, where, when, and how) and included both concept-driven and data-driven codes.
Overall, 2909 unique media articles discussing the 2021 Heat Dome were identified, with the majority (74%) published by online news agencies (how). The highest article count was on June 29, 2021 (n = 159), representing 5% of the total data set (n = 2909) spanning 260 days (when); 57% of the identified locations were in British Columbia (where). Although we found that the top voices providing media-based heat-health messages are government officials (who), only 23% of articles included heat-health messaging that aligns with the government health alert bulletins released during extreme heat. In addition, heat-health messaging frequently included contradictory content, inconsistent language, or incorrect advice (what).
The findings demonstrate clear opportunities to improve health communication related to extreme heat, perhaps most importantly, including updates to mass media messaging educating the public on heat-protective behaviors.
The capacity for some pathogens to jump into different host-species populations is a major threat to public health and food security. Staphylococcus aureus is a multi-host bacterial pathogen ...responsible for important human and livestock diseases. Here, using a population-genomic approach, we identify humans as a major hub for ancient and recent S. aureus host-switching events linked to the emergence of endemic livestock strains, and cows as the main animal reservoir for the emergence of human epidemic clones. Such host-species transitions are associated with horizontal acquisition of genetic elements from host-specific gene pools conferring traits required for survival in the new host-niche. Importantly, genes associated with antimicrobial resistance are unevenly distributed among human and animal hosts, reflecting distinct antibiotic usage practices in medicine and agriculture. In addition to gene acquisition, genetic diversification has occurred in pathways associated with nutrient acquisition, implying metabolic remodelling after a host switch in response to distinct nutrient availability. For example, S. aureus from dairy cattle exhibit enhanced utilization of lactose-a major source of carbohydrate in bovine milk. Overall, our findings highlight the influence of human activities on the multi-host ecology of a major bacterial pathogen, underpinned by horizontal gene transfer and core genome diversification.
DNA encoded libraries (DEL) have shown promise as a valuable technology for democratizing the hit discovery process. Although DEL provides relatively inexpensive access to libraries of unprecedented ...size, their production has been hampered by the idiosyncratic needs of the encoding DNA tag relegating DEL compatible chemistry to dilute aqueous environments. Recently reversible adsorption to solid support (RASS) has been demonstrated as a promising method to expand DEL reactivity using standard organic synthesis protocols. Here we demonstrate a suite of on‐DNA chemistries to incorporate medicinally relevant and C−S, C−P and N−S linkages into DELs, which are underrepresented in the canonical methods.
DNA encoded libraries (DEL) have shown promise as a valuable technology for democratizing the hit discovery process. A suite of on‐DNA chemistries is demonstrated to incorporate medicinally relevant C−S, C−P and N−S linkages into DELs, which are underrepresented in the canonical methods.
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