Marine Protected Areas: A Governance System Analysis

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are promoted as an important marine ecosystem management tool. However, they are complex systems that, from a governance perspective, raise serious challenges with regard to their effectiveness. In this paper, drawing on recent contributions to the so-called “interactive governance theory,” we argue that marine and coastal governance is basically a relationship between two systems, a “governing system” and a “system-to-be-governed.” The former system is social: it is made up of institutions and steering mechanisms. The latter system is partly natural, partly social: it consists of an ecosystem, and the resources that this harbours, as well as a system of users and stakeholders who, among themselves, form political coalitions and institutions. We need to be concerned with the relationship and the interaction between the governing system and the system-to-be governed, which forms a system in its own right. Governance theory argues that both systems and their interactions share similar attributes—they are diverse, complex, dynamic and vulnerable. This raises serious concerns as to their governability. There may be limits to what the governing system can do, limits attributed to one or all three systems. But such limits are themselves issues and concerns for planning and institutional design. In this paper we present, in the form of a governance matrix, the relevant issues and concerns with regard to the governability of MPAs.

Mapping Habitats and Developing Baselines in Offshore Marine Reserves with Little Prior Knowledge: A Critical Evaluation of a New Approach

The recently declared Australian Commonwealth Marine Reserve (CMR) Network covers a total of 3.1 million km² of continental shelf, slope, and abyssal habitat. Managing and conserving the biodiversity values within this network requires knowledge of the physical and biological assets that lie within its boundaries. Unfortunately very little is known about the habitats and biological assemblages of the continental shelf within the network, where diversity is richest and anthropogenic pressures are greatest. Effective management of the CMR estate into the future requires this knowledge gap to be filled efficiently and quantitatively. The challenge is particularly great for the shelf as multibeam echosounder (MBES) mapping, a key tool for identifying and quantifying habitat distribution, is time consuming in shallow depths, so full coverage mapping of the CMR shelf assets is unrealistic in the medium-term. Here we report on the results of a study undertaken in the Flinders Commonwealth Marine Reserve (southeast Australia) designed to test the benefits of two approaches to characterising shelf habitats: (i) MBES mapping of a continuous (~30 km²) area selected on the basis of its potential to include a range of seabed habitats that are potentially representative of the wider area, versus; (ii) a novel approach that uses targeted mapping of a greater number of smaller, but spatially balanced, locations using a Generalized Random Tessellation Stratified sample design. We present the first quantitative estimates of habitat type and sessile biological communities on the shelf of the Flinders reserve, the former based on three MBES analysis techniques. We contrast the quality of information that both survey approaches offer in combination with the three MBES analysis methods. The GRTS approach enables design based estimates of habitat types and sessile communities and also identifies potential biodiversity hotspots in the northwest corner of the reserve’s IUCN zone IV, and in locations close to shelf incising canyon heads. Design based estimates of habitats, however, vary substantially depending on the MBES analysis technique, highlighting the challenging nature of the reserve’s low profile reefs, and improvements that are needed when acquiring MBES data for small GRTS locations. We conclude that the two survey approaches are complementary and both have their place in a successful and flexible monitoring strategy; the emphasis on one method over the other should be considered on a case by case basis, taking into account the survey objectives and limitations imposed by the type of vessel, time available, size and location of the region where knowledge is required.     

基于知识图谱的肿瘤MDT研究可视化分析

目的 梳理肿瘤多学科诊疗团队研究关键主题,分析研究热点和趋势。方法 应用CiteSpace对肿瘤多学科诊疗团队研究进行可视化分析。结果 相关文献共2 160篇,关键文献10篇,主要主题聚类15个,突现术语29个。结论 肿瘤MDT研究主要集中于多学科诊疗团队的构建及运行、推行情况、效果评价,研究前沿如提高实施效率、成本—效果分析、随机对照研究等,为中国肿瘤多学科诊疗团队研究和发展提供了新视角。     

A Framework to Explore the Knowledge Structure of Multidisciplinary Research Fields

Understanding emerging areas of a multidisciplinary research field is crucial for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders. For them a knowledge structure based on longitudinal bibliographic data can be an effective instrument. But with the vast amount of available online information it is often hard to understand the knowledge structure for data. In this paper, we present a novel approach for retrieving online bibliographic data and propose a framework for exploring knowledge structure. We also present several longitudinal analyses to interpret and visualize the last 20 years of published obesity research data.     

Chapter 1: Biomedical Knowledge Integration

The modern biomedical research and healthcare delivery domains have seen an unparalleled increase in the rate of innovation and novel technologies over the past several decades. Catalyzed by paradigm-shifting public and private programs focusing upon the formation and delivery of genomic and personalized medicine, the need for high-throughput and integrative approaches to the collection, management, and analysis of heterogeneous data sets has become imperative. This need is particularly pressing in the translational bioinformatics domain, where many fundamental research questions require the integration of large scale, multi-dimensional clinical phenotype and bio-molecular data sets. Modern biomedical informatics theory and practice has demonstrated the distinct benefits associated with the use of knowledge-based systems in such contexts. A knowledge-based system can be defined as an intelligent agent that employs a computationally tractable knowledge base or repository in order to reason upon data in a targeted domain and reproduce expert performance relative to such reasoning operations. The ultimate goal of the design and use of such agents is to increase the reproducibility, scalability, and accessibility of complex reasoning tasks. Examples of the application of knowledge-based systems in biomedicine span a broad spectrum, from the execution of clinical decision support, to epidemiologic surveillance of public data sets for the purposes of detecting emerging infectious diseases, to the discovery of novel hypotheses in large-scale research data sets. In this chapter, we will review the basic theoretical frameworks that define core knowledge types and reasoning operations with particular emphasis on the applicability of such conceptual models within the biomedical domain, and then go on to introduce a number of prototypical data integration requirements and patterns relevant to the conduct of translational bioinformatics that can be addressed via the design and use of knowledge-based systems.

What to Learn in This Chapter

• Understand basic knowledge types and structures that can be applied to biomedical and translational science;
• Gain familiarity with the knowledge engineering cycle, tools and methods that may be used throughout that cycle, and the resulting classes of knowledge products generated via such processes;
• An understanding of the basic methods and techniques that can be used to employ knowledge products in order to integrate and reason upon heterogeneous and multi-dimensional data sets; and
• Become conversant in the open research questions/areas related to the ability to develop and apply knowledge collections in the translational bioinformatics domain.

This article is part of the “Translational Bioinformatics” collection for PLOS Computational Biology.

     

Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power

Anthropology of Policy: Critical Perspectives on Governance and Power. Cris Shore and Susan Wright. eds. New York: Routledge, 1997. 294 pp.     

Knowledge Integration in Biomedicine: Technology and Community

Brief Bioinform. Advance     

Good anthropology in dark times: Critical appraisal and ethnographic application

‘Dark Anthropology’ and its complementary ‘Anthropology of the Good’ have become influential and debated notions in anthropology in recent years. I here parse distinctive features of these emphases, address their relation to theory and to ethnography, and consider the stakes involved in concretely applying their conceptual designations. I discuss the general shift in anthropology from grand theory to key concept, and the topical delimitation of theory that results. In larger purview, Dark Anthropology and the Anthropology of the Good both have long theoretical genealogies as well as practical contexts of political and social understanding, including vis‐à‐vis recent events in the U.S. and elsewhere. I suggest that considering the relationship between politico‐economically structured inequality and attempts to assert positive meaning and purpose is the most productive way to ethnographically apply their alternative conceptualisations. This brings to greater focus the thorny question of whose understanding of inequality or suffering, or of moral value and positive wellbeing, is being articulated—the sentiments of the people studied, or the concepts of the analyst? It seems vital to examine both analytic and indigenous views of dark times, and of the good, to refine our understanding of both, that is, in order to consider our complementary conceptualisations in relation to both sides of the emic/etic coin. This refines our understanding of local sensibilities and also of the appropriate limit points of our own conceptual associations.     

ECG Changes in Subarachnoid Haemorrhage: A Synopsis

Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) is a neurological emergency with high mortality rates. It is mainly caused by rupture of an aneurysm (congenital/infectious/traumatic) or rupture of an arteriovenous malformation. Electrocardiograms (ECGs) done in patients with SAH have shown morphological changes as well as arrhythmias. Subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) patients have often been misdiagnosed to have cardiac abnormalities based on their ECGs when in many of those instances the ECG change had been the result of the SAH itself. They have led to unnecessary and wasteful investigations and therapies in many occasions. Hence the current article is an effort at consolidating the information available in an attempt to avoid possible errors in diagnosis by house staff and internists. There are two mechanisms that might mediate ECG changes in patients with SAH, i.e. autonomic neural stimulation from the hypothalamus or elevated levels of circulating catecholamine. Hypothalamic stimulation may cause ECG changes without associated myocardial damage whereas elevated catecholamine levels have been correlated with QT-interval prolongation and myocardial damage.     

Rio Plus Ten: The Evolution of International Marine Fisheries Governance

The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held at Rio de Janeiro was a seminal event that addressed the interplay of economic development and human use of natural resources with the need for protection of the natural environment. The general principles embodied in the Rio Declaration and the provisions included in the comprehensive Agenda 21 expressed the expectations of the international community and set the stage for national and international policy and legal developments in a host of different areas, including the governance of the ocean's living resources. Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 focused on the world's oceans and seas and crystallized growing world community concern with problems such as unregulated fishing, fishing vessel reflagging, overcapitalization of the fishing industry, inadequate fisheries enforcement, and insufficient cooperation among states. Further, the documentation of UNCED evidenced interest in new governance frameworks and concepts such as ecosystem-based management and precaution. In retrospect, it is clear that the ideas discussed at Rio have been important and have been implemented by a variety of governments and international organizations as they exercise their responsibilities for fisheries management. This article examines the principles and approaches suggested by UNCED as they relate to world fisheries and considers how they have been reflected in global fishery agreements such as the FAO Compliance Agreement and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, in the work of international fishery bodies such as the FAO Committee on Fisheries, and in the efforts of a number of regional fishery commissions. It also addresses the significance and ramifications of changes suggested by Agenda 21 for the future conduct and management of world marine fisheries.     

Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and Its Transformations: Critical Anthropological Perspectives.

Indigenous Environmental Knowledge and Its Transformations: Critical Anthropological Perspectives. Roy Ellen. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000. 356 pp.     

The Exploration-Exploitation Dilemma: A Multidisciplinary Framework

The trade-off between the need to obtain new knowledge and the need to use that knowledge to improve performance is one of the most basic trade-offs in nature, and optimal performance usually requires some balance between exploratory and exploitative behaviors. Researchers in many disciplines have been searching for the optimal solution to this dilemma. Here we present a novel model in which the exploration strategy itself is dynamic and varies with time in order to optimize a definite goal, such as the acquisition of energy, money, or prestige. Our model produced four very distinct phases: Knowledge establishment, Knowledge accumulation, Knowledge maintenance, and Knowledge exploitation, giving rise to a multidisciplinary framework that applies equally to humans, animals, and organizations. The framework can be used to explain a multitude of phenomena in various disciplines, such as the movement of animals in novel landscapes, the most efficient resource allocation for a start-up company, or the effects of old age on knowledge acquisition in humans.     

Stable Isotope Analysis in Primatology: A Critical Review

Stable isotope analysis has become an important tool in ecology over the last 25 years. A wealth of ecological information is stored in animal tissues in the relative abundances of the stable isotopes of several elements, particularly carbon and nitrogen, because these isotopes navigate through ecological processes in predictable ways. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes have been measured in most primate taxonomic groups and have yielded information about dietary content, dietary variability, and habitat use. Stable isotopes have recently proven useful for addressing more fine‐grained questions about niche dynamics and anthropogenic effects on feeding ecology. Here, we discuss stable carbon and nitrogen isotope systematics and critically review the published stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data for modern primates with a focus on the problems and prospects for future stable isotope applications in primatology. Am. J. Primatol. 74:969‐989, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Two-Culture Problem: Ecological Restoration and the Integration of Knowledge

The terms “ecological restoration” and “restoration ecology” are frequently interchanged. Restoration ecology is the suite of scientific practices that constitute an emergent subdiscipline of ecology. Ecological restoration is the ensemble of practices that constitute the entire field of restoration, including restoration ecology as well as the participating human and natural sciences, politics, technologies, economic factors, and cultural dimensions. This paper is motivated by the concern that the broader practice of restoration may become narrowed over the next decade as a result of zealous attention to scientific and technological considerations, and that restoration ecology will trump ecological restoration. Scientific and technological acumen is necessary for successful restoration, but insufficient. Maintaining a broader approach to restoration requires respect for other kinds of knowledge than science, and especially the recognition of a moral center that is beyond the scope of science to address fully. An example of integrated restoration is presented: the ecological and cultural restoration of Discovery Island (near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) by the Lekwungen people (Songhees First Nation).     

Epidermal Nutrient Absorption in Marine Invertebrates: A Comparative Analysis

SYNOPSIS. This paper reviews present knowledge on the transportmechanisms responsible for integumentary uptake of exogenousmonosaccharides and amino acids in marine invertebrates. Thediscussion is based on work in the author's laboratory, usingthe polychaete Nereis diversicolor Miiller as the main experimentalmodel. Comparison is made with solute transport in other animalepithelia, especially those of vertebrate origin. Transport across the apical epidermal membrane via specifictransport systems or by diffusion in the lipoid plasmalemmais described with emphasis on the trans-membrane concentrationgradients maintained. The epidermal cells seem to be functionallyasymmetric, favoring outflux across the basolateral membrane(into the extracellular fluid) over that across the apical one.The intercellular spaces provide a paracellular pathway fornutrient diffusion from the extracellular fluid to the exterior,but the quantitative importance of this route needs furtherinvestigation. Although a net uptake from low external concentrationsinto the epidermis is clearly established, there is insufficientevidence specifically related to a true trans-epidermal netflow, a problem of critical importance for evaluating the nutritionalrole of exogenous organic material. Accumulating transport systemsin the apical membrane seem to be involved in solute recyclingat the cuticular-epidermal interface, thereby decreasing theeffective epidermal permeability to diffusional loss of valuablenutrients.     

Fishers' Knowledge of Marine Species Assemblages: Bridging between Scientific and Local Ecological Knowledge in Southeastern Puerto Rico

Increasingly, local ecological knowledge (LEK) held by groups of people engaging directly with their ecosystems for food production is recognized as a valuable tool for understanding environmental change, as well as for ecosystem management and conservation. However, the acceptance of LEK for resource management has been partly hindered by difficulties in translating local knowledge into a form that can be applied directly to Western scientific endeavors. Anthropology's focus on cultural meaning makes its practitioners uniquely qualified to find common ground between different systems of knowledge. Here, I report the use of ethnographic methods to represent Puerto Rican small-scale fishers' knowledge about tropical coastal habitat connectivity and the composition of species assemblages by underwater habitats. These two topics are of current interest for tropical fishery science and their study can benefit from fishers' extensive experience with the coastal environments on which they depend.     

The Causal Analysis Framework: Refining Approaches and Expanding Multidisciplinary Applications

This series of articles provides perspectives and recent case examples reflective of the growing interest in and need for formal causal analysis procedures that narrow the uncertainties associated with understanding cause and effect relationships in environmental and health matters. That understanding is important for guiding prevention, remediation, and/or restoration efforts pertaining to environmental stressors. A defensible establishment or refutation of causes is often needed to support legal opinions and/or reach decisions on specific regulatory actions. For complex environmental and health matters, the ability to support cause and effect relationships to a reasonable degree of certainty depends not only on the existence of the relationships but also on the analyst's ability to examine alternative possibilities and to use available evidence to support scientific opinion. Formal casual analyses have evolved to provide analysts with organized frameworks for weighing evidence and decreasing the likelihood of missing important aspects of cause and effect relationships as problems become increasingly complex and less familiar. In this perspectives series, the causal analysis method is explored through additional examination of the underlying philosophies and history of approaches that serve as the foundation of what we consider causal analysis today. In addition, examples of applied causal analysis provide insights into the challenges and benefits of a well thought out causal analysis.