Differential effects of circadian typology on sleep-related symptoms,physical fatigue and psychological well-being in relation to resilience

Various physiological and psychological functions are influenced by circadian typology (CT), which was reported to be related to resilience. However, few studies have assessed the effects of CT in relation to resilience. The aim of the present study was to assess the influence of CT on sleep-related symptoms, physical fatigue and psychological well-being in relation to resilience. The present study included a total of 1794 healthy hospital employees, and they completed the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire, Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Fatigue Severity Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version. Subjects with evening type showed lower sleep quality, more daytime sleepiness and physical fatigue than neither types and morning types. Additionally, evening types were more depressed and anxious and reported a poorer quality of life. CT was found to be a significant predictor of sleep quality, but CT was minimally associated with physical fatigue and psychological well-being in the regression analysis. Instead, resilience was substantially related to all of the variables measured. In conclusion, CT independently predicts sleep quality, but the effects of CT on physical fatigue and psychological well-being are negligible compared to those of resilience.     

Praying for Drought: Persistent Vulnerability and the Politics of Patronage in Ceará, Northeast Brazil

ABSTRACT   The phrase persistent vulnerability reflects the enduring relationship of the rural population in Ceará with a highly variable climate. Persistence underscores the historical and unyielding nature of this vulnerability. Yet contrary to once-catastrophic rates of mortality etched in a public consciousness, no one dies from severe droughts and few people flee them as in the past. Government relief and social transfers have become the institutionalized form of adaptation, giving way to the counterintuitive reality that drought stabilizes the food and income supply for poor people. We analyze how maladaptive risk reduction, which is embedded in clientilistic social relations, undermines resilience, and we examine pathways toward a more sustainable adaptive relationship.     

Threshold response of Madagascar's littoral forest to sea-level rise

Aim Coastal biodiversity hotspots are globally threatened by sea‐level rise. As such it is important to understand how ecosystems resist, respond and adapt to sea‐level rise. Using pollen, geochemistry, charcoal and diatom records in conjunction with previously published palaeoclimatic records, we investigated the mechanism, interactions and ecosystem response and resilience of Madagascar's littoral forest to late Holocene sea‐level rise. Location Sediment sequences were collected along the south‐east coast of Madagascar in two adjacent habitats in Mandena; the highly diverse littoral forest fragment and species‐poor Erica‐matrix. Methods We used a multi‐proxy approach to investigate the relative influence of environmental changes on the littoral ecosystem. We reconstructed past vegetation and fire dynamics over the past 6500 years at two sites in the littoral forest using fossil pollen and macrofossil charcoal contained in sedimentary sequences. Alongside these records we reconstructed past marine transgressions from the same sedimentary sequences using geochemical analyses, and a salinity and drought index through the analysis of fossil diatoms. Results Our findings indicated that it was the synergistic effect of sea‐level rise coupled with rainfall deficits that triggered a threshold event with a switch from two types of littoral forest (an open Uapaca forest and a closed littoral forest fragment) to an Erica–Myrica heath/grassland occurring in approximately less than 100 years. Resilience to sea‐level rise differed in the two adjacent habitats, suggesting that the littoral forest fragment was more resilient to the impacts of sea‐level change and aridity than the open Uapaca woodland. Conclusions We demonstrated that the littoral ecosystem was influenced by late Holocene sea‐level rise and climatic desiccation. While climate change‐integrated conservation strategies address the effects of climate change on species distribution and dispersal, our work suggests that more attention should be paid to the impacts of interactive climatic variables that affect ecosystem thresholds.     

Corals shed bacteria as a potential mechanism of resilience to organic matter enrichment

Understanding the mechanisms of resilience of coral reefs to anthropogenic stressors is a critical step toward mitigating their current global decline. Coral–bacteria associations are fundamental to reef health and disease, but direct observations of these interactions remain largely unexplored. Here, we use novel technology, high-speed laser scanning confocal microscopy on live coral (Pocillopora damicornis), to test the hypothesis that corals exert control over the abundance of their associated bacterial communities by releasing (‘shedding'') bacteria from their surface, and that this mechanism can counteract bacterial growth stimulated by organic inputs. We also test the hypothesis that the coral pathogen Vibrio coralliilyticus can evade such a defense mechanism. This first report of direct observation with high-speed confocal microscopy of living coral and its associated bacterial community revealed a layer (3.3–146.8 μm thick) on the coral surface where bacteria were concentrated. The results of two independent experiments showed that the bacterial abundance in this layer was not sensitive to enrichment (5 mg l⁻¹ peptone), and that coral fragments exposed to enrichment released significantly more bacteria from their surfaces than control corals (P<0.01; 35.9±1.4 × 10⁵ cells cm⁻² coral versus 1.3±0.5 × 10⁵ cells cm⁻² coral). Our results provide direct support to the hypothesis that shedding bacteria may be an important mechanism by which coral-associated bacterial abundances are regulated under organic matter stress. Additionally, the novel ability to watch this ecological behavior in real-time at the microscale opens an unexplored avenue for mechanistic studies of coral–microbe interactions.     

Analysis and evaluation of ecosystem resilience: an economic perspective with an application to the Venice lagoon

This paper focuses on the analysis and evaluation of resilience anchored in an economic perspective. Resilience, as well as most of the benefits provided by ecosystems, is not priced on current markets. However, this does not mean that resilience is of no value for humans. On the contrary, the interest of using an economic perspective, and the respective scientific methodology, will be put forward in terms of resilience relevance for ecosystem functioning, and its impact on human welfare. The economic perspective is anchored in an anthropocentric analysis evaluating resilience in terms of provision of natural capital benefits. These in turn are interpreted as insurance against the risk of ecosystem malfunctioning and the consequent interruption of the provision of goods and services to humans. For this analysis, we make use of a conceptual framework that identifies and describes the different value components of resilience. Finally, we present an illustration that discusses the economic analysis of resilience benefits in the context of the Venice Lagoon.     

Ecological thresholds: Concept,Methods and research outlooks

The concept of ecological thresholds was raised in the 1970s. However, it was subsequently given different definitions and interpretations depending on research fields or disciplines. For most scientists, ecological thresholds refer to the points or zones that link abrupt changes between alternative stable states of an ecosystem. The measurement and quantification of ecological thresholds have great theoretical and practical significance in ecological research for clarifying the structure and function of ecosystems, for planning sustainable development modes, and for delimiting ecological red lines in managing the ecosystems of a region. By reviewing the existing concepts and classifications of ecological thresholds, we propose a new concept and definition at two different levels: the ecological threshold points, i.e. the turning points of quantitative changes to qualitative changes, which can be considered as ecological red lines; the ecological threshold zones, i.e. the regime shifts of the quantitative changes among different stable states, which can be considered as the yellow and/or orange warning boundaries of the gradual ecological changes. The yellow thresholds mean that an ecosystem can return to a stable state by its self-adjustment, the orange thresholds indicate that the ecosystem will stay in the equilibrium state after interference factors being removed, whereas the red thresholds, as the critical threshold points, indicate that the ecosystem will undergo irreversible degradation or even collapse beyond those points. We also summarizes two types of popular Methods in determining ecological thresholds: statistical analysis and modeling based on data of field observations. The applications of ecological thresholds in ecosystem service, biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management research are also reviewed. Future research on ecological thresholds should focus on the following aspects: (1) methodological development for measurement and quantification of ecological thresholds; (2) emphasizing the scaling effect of ecological thresholds and establishment of national-scale observation system and network; and (3) implementation of ecological thresholds as early warning tools in ecosystem management and delimiting ecological red lines.     

韧性：三角洲地区规划转型的新理念

三角洲地区经过近几十年的快速发展,在城市建设方面取得举世瞩目的成就,然而长期积累的生态问题也更加突出,暴露出的空间脆弱性问题日益显著。面对自然基底脆弱、自然灾害扰动趋势增强等因素在时空上的高度叠合,迫切需要提升三角洲地区应对未来不确定性扰动的能力。首先从景观角度分析三角洲地区自然环境的特殊性,提出韧性规划是对现有三角洲地区规划转型的论点,认为鲁棒性、适应性、学习—转化能力是三角洲地区韧性规划的核心能力,系统性、协同性、底线性、预判性是三角洲地区韧性规划的主要思维特征。其次,进一步从优化整体格局、构建流动性载体、加强对韧性技术策略的研究和应用、重视跨尺度协作与管理等方面提出了构建“格局—连通—关键点”的韧性规划框架。最后,阐述韧性规划作为三角洲地区规划转型的新理念,应用于具体案例的空间布局时须以人为本,依托自然环境,以自然流动性为规划导向;须基于预判式过程,充分构想能够应对不同情景的预案;须整合生态智慧与现代技术,明晰兼顾鲁棒性与适应性的功能分区管治体系。     

乳腺癌患者心理韧性相关影响因素分析及心理韧性与焦虑的关系

目的:分析乳腺癌患者心理韧性的影响因素,并分析心理韧性与焦虑的关系。方法:于2017年2月～2018年4月期间,选择蚌埠医学院第二附属医院收治的乳腺癌患者287例为研究对象,分别采用心理韧性量表(RS)、焦虑自评量表(SAS)评估研究对象的心理韧性及焦虑状态,并采用多因素Logistic回归分析法分析乳腺癌患者心理韧性相关的影响因素,应用多元逐步线性回归分析法分析乳腺癌患者心理韧性与焦虑的关系。结果:乳腺癌患者RS得分为(76.72±9.82)分。单因素分析显示,不同年龄、居住地、家庭月收入及费用支出形式患者的RS得分比较差异有统计学意义(P0.05);不同文化程度、婚姻状况、手术类型及肿瘤分期患者的RS得分比较差异无统计学意义(P0.05)。多因素Logistic回归分析结果显示,年龄为20～40岁、居住地为农村、家庭月收入3000元、费用支出形式为自费是乳腺癌患者心理韧性的影响因素(P0.05)。乳腺癌患者SAS得分为(5.02±1.42)分,以心理韧性为自变量,焦虑为因变量进行多元逐步线性回归分析,结果显示,乳腺癌患者心理韧性为焦虑的预测因子,其心理韧性水平越高,焦虑程度越低(P0.05)。结论:乳腺癌患者心理韧性水平偏低,且其对患者焦虑状态具有预测作用,年龄为20～40岁、居住地为农村、家庭月收入3000元、费用支出形式为自费是乳腺癌患者心理韧性的影响因素,临床治疗中应该根据以上影响因素进行相关干预。