Biogeochemical signatures in the lichen Hypogymnia physodes in the mid Urals

Multi-element content and uranium (U) isotopes were investigated in the lichen Hypogymnia physodes (native and transplants) sampled across a 60-km transect, centred on Karabash smelter town, from Turgoyak Lake (SW) to Kyshtym (NE) to investigate the origin of U. Kyshtym was the site of a major nuclear accident in 1957. (234)U/(238)U activity ratios in native thalli sampled during July 2001 were within the natural isotopic ratio in minerals. Uranium/thorium (U/Th) ratios were higher in native thalli towards the NE (average 0.73) than those in the SW (average 0.57). Element signatures in native thalli and transplants suggest U was derived from fossil fuel combustion from Karabash and sources lying further to the east. Systematic and significant U enrichment indicative of a nuclear fuel cycle source was not detected in any sample. Element signatures in epiphytic lichen transplants and native thalli provide a powerful method to evaluate U deposition.     

Cognitive skills underlying driving in patients discharged following self-poisoning with central nervous system depressant drugs

Background: Central nervous system-depressant (CNS-Ds) drugs can impair cognitive functions and driving. They are also the most common drugs taken in overdose in hospital-treated episodes of self-poisoning. In Australia most of these patients are discharged within 48?h, while they still have possible subclinical drug effects. We aimed to determine whether patients treated for self-poisoning with CNS-Ds are impaired in the Trail-Making Test (TMT, parts A and B), a neuropsychological test that is known to correlate with driving performance. Methods: This study was a conducted from November 2008 to April 2011 in a referral center for poisonings in New South Wales, Australia. One hundred seven patients discharged from the clinical toxicology unit following treatment for self-poisoning of CNS-Ds (benzodiazepines, atypical antipsychotics, or opioids) and a control group of 68 discharged following self-poisoning of non-CNS-depressant drugs (acetaminophen or nonsedating antidepressants) were tested with the TMT (parts A and B). Due to the known association of impaired TMT with driving impairment and increased risk of traffic accidents, performance less than the 10th percentile for age was defined as significant impairment in each part of the TMT. The odds ratio (OR) for impairment in each part was calculated in multivariate logistic regression (MLR) models adjusted for gender, education, IQ, and the presence of a major psychiatric illness. A secondary MLR analysis was conducted only for those patients (78 CNS-D and 54 control group participants) who were directly discharged home, after excluding those who were transferred for further psychiatric care. Results: The odds of impairment in the CNS-D group was 2.8?times that of the control group on the TMT-A (38 [35.5%] vs. 11 [16.2%]: adjusted OR = 2.76, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.28-5.97), and 4.6?times on the TMT-B (67 [62.6%] vs. 22 [32.4%]: adjusted OR = 4.63, 95% CI: 2.06-10.42). The results were similar in the subgroup of patients discharged home, and the odds of impairment in the CNS-D group was 3.3?times that of the control group on the TMT-A (25 [32.1%] vs. 7 [13.0%]: adjusted OR = 3.30, 95% CI: 1.28-8.52), and 3.6?times on the TMT-B (46 [59.0%] vs. 17 [31.5%]: adjusted OR = 3.64, 95% CI: 1.44-9.20). TMT-B impairment in the CNS-D group remained significant even after adjusting for TMT-A performance. Conclusions: Patients with CNS-D overdose may have significant impairment in cognitive skills underlying driving at the time of discharge from hospitals. Clinicians should warn these patients that their driving skills might still be impaired, even if they are considered clinically recovered and advise them not to drive during the first 1 to 2?days following discharge.     

Exploring the role of local community perceptions in sustainability measurements

Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities’ perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals’ perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.     

Quantifying biases in marine-protected-area placement relative to abatable threats

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are a critical defense against biodiversity loss in the world's oceans, but to realize near-term conservation benefits, they must be established where major threats to biodiversity occur and can be mitigated. We quantified the degree to which MPA establishment has targeted stoppable threats (i.e., threats that can be abated through effectively managed MPAs alone) by combining spatially explicit marine biodiversity threat data in 2008 and 2013 and information on the location and potential of MPAs to halt threats. We calculated an impact metric to determine whether countries are protecting proportionally more high- or low-threat ecoregions and compared observed values with random protected-area allocation. We found that protection covered <2% of ecoregions in national waters with high levels of abatable threat in 2013, which is ∼59% less protection in high-threat areas than if MPAs had been placed randomly. Relatively low-threat ecoregions had 6.3 times more strict protection (International Union for Conservation of Nature categories I–II) than high-threat ecoregions. Thirty-one ecoregions had high levels of stoppable threat but very low protection, which presents opportunities for MPAs to yield more significant near-term conservation benefits. The extent of the global MPA estate has increased, but the establishment of MPAs where they can reduce threats that are driving biodiversity loss is now urgently needed.     

Epidemiology of alcohol and drug screening among pedestrian fatalities in the United States, 2014–2016

Objective: U.S. pedestrian fatalities increased by 25% between 2010 and 2015. Risk factors include distractions, the built environment, urbanization, economic variables, and weather conditions. Of interest is the role of alcohol and drugs in premature death among pedestrians. This study sought to explore the prevalence of substance use screenings among pedestrian fatalities in the United States between 2014 and 2016.

Methods: Data were collected from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System provided by the NHTSA. Pedestrian crash variables included demographics as well as information regarding alcohol or drug testing status. Frequency and cross-tabulation tables were constructed to assess the prevalence of screening by person, place, and time. Log-linear analyses were completed to explore age, race, and sex differences. A 3-year examination period was used to control for yearly fluctuations and to incorporate an increasing trend in cases.

Results: Pedestrian fatalities accounted for 84% of all deaths among vulnerable road users during the examination period. Those most at risk were white males between the ages of 45 and 64. Over all states, 74.7% of fatalities were tested for alcohol and 67.1% were tested for drugs; further, 66.5% of cases were tested for both alcohol and drugs and 24.8% were tested for neither substance. Cases screened for both alcohol and drugs ranged from 2.9% in North Carolina to 95.7% in Nevada and those testing for neither substance ranged from a high of 68.9% in Indiana to a low of 1.1% in Maryland. Log-linear regression revealed significant differences in alcohol screening by age and race but not by sex. Differences in drug screening were not identified for any demographic variable. Fatalities tested for alcohol were significantly more likely to be tested for drugs; only 8.2% were screened solely for alcohol and 0.05% were screened for drugs alone.

Conclusions: Preventive strategies become more important as pedestrian crashes and fatalities increase. Risk reduction in the form of policy change, alterations to the built environment, or interdisciplinary approaches to injury prevention is dependent upon best evidence supported in part by more deliberate and consistent screening.     

Designing the next generation of climate adaptation research for development

Adaptation research has changed significantly in recent years as funders and researchers seek to encourage greater impact, ensure value for money and promote interdisciplinarity across the natural and social sciences. While these developments are inherently positive, they also bring fresh challenges. With this in mind, this paper presents an agenda for the next generation of climate adaptation research for development. The agenda is based on insights from a dialogue session held at the 2016 Adaptation Futures conference as well as drawing on the collective experience of the authors. We propose five key areas that need to be changed in order to meet the needs of future adaptation research, namely: increasing transparency and consultation in research design; encouraging innovation in the design and delivery of adaptation research programmes; demonstrating impact on the ground; addressing incentive structures; and promoting more effective brokering, knowledge management and learning. As new international funding initiatives start to take shape, we underscore the importance of learning from past experiences and scaling-up of successful innovations in research funding models.

     

The socio-economic vulnerability of the Australian east coast grazing sector to the impacts of climate change

Regional Environmental Change - Research that projects biophysical changes under climate change is more advanced than research that projects socio-economic changes. There is a need in adaptation...     

Variation in the trophic structure and species composition of some invertebrate communities in polluted kelp forests in the North Sea

The absence of species from kelp holdfast habitats is used to establish changes in invertebrate community structure in polluted coastal waters along the shores of North Eastern Britain. The study shows the following changes: (1) Approximately 45% of the species complement studied in clean-water habitats are missing from polluted habitats. (2) Rare species are lost and food chains are missing. (3) Dislocations of the marine food web occur: removal of parts of the primary producer to herbivore food chain; suppression of some carnivores; removal of some omnivores and selection of certain suspension feeders. (4) No new species appear in polluted communities. (5) Recombinations of resistant species compensate for the reduction in energy flow through a damaged food web by proportionally increasing the suspension-feeding pathways. (6) The ecological equilibrium of the suspension-feeding groups which are responsible for maintaining the damaged food web are in a delicate state of balance. The further loss of 1 large food chain could result in the collapse of the remaining fragments of a polluted-water invertebrate community food web.