Priority river habitat in England – mapping and targeting measures

• This paper outlines an analysis of nationally available GIS datasets to generate a new map of priority river habitat for England. • Rivers in England were selected as priority habitat based on naturalness criteria (physical, hydrological, chemical and biological), capturing the most natural remaining examples as far as can be ascertained from nationally available data. This means that many examples of river types included in the UK BAP definition (such as chalk rivers) are excluded from the priority habitat map as they have been significantly modified and degraded over the centuries. • In addition to explaining the development of the new priority habitat map, this paper provides advice on how the map might best be used, how to target and prioritise restoration activity on rivers that do not feature on the map, and how to identify and give recognition to any restoration works that contribute to wider priority river habitat objectives. • The priority habitat map (Figure 10 in the report) - This provides a focus for preventing deterioration of our most natural remaining rivers and undertaking any limited restoration of natural processes that may be desirable (as indicated in Figure 16). • Priority rivers for restoration - Figure 17 shows rivers that are of types relevant to the UK BAP definition (chalk rivers and active shingle rivers) but are not sufficiently natural to feature on the priority habitat map. These should be considered a priority for restoration of natural processes. Action on these rivers should be considered of equal importance to the protection and enhancement of rivers on the priority habitat map. • Given that this national analysis is relatively coarse (particularly in respect of headwater areas), there is considerable scope for local ground-truthing and refinement. Local knowledge and interpretation have an important role to play in the use of the outputs of this work. It is recommended that a process is established for refining the priority habitat map based on more detailed local knowledge of naturally functioning rivers. The national map should subsequently be updated (a timeframe of 6 months is recommended) to reflect any local refinements. Resources need to be made available for this process. • As part of local application, it should be recognised that the national analysis only provides a river-reach or water body perspective. Local interpretation is needed to place priorities in a whole-river and catchment management context

The potential for haptic-enabled interaction to support collaborative learning in school biology

This paper discusses the rationales and design considerations for developing the use of haptics (virtual touch) for learning aspects of cell biology in secondary schools. The paper considers issues in understanding concepts in cell biology and how a 3-D environment enabled by haptics could support learning of difficult concepts. In this endeavour, a number of educational and design challenges need to be addressed. First we need to identify the level of detail and realism that will support learning and visualisation rather than confuse through its overcomplexity or create misconceptions through oversimplification. Secondly we need to integrate the use of the 3-D environment into classroom teaching by identifying relevant curriculum and pedagogical challenges and solutions. Significant design challenges include navigating the content and scale changes involved in moving between the visible, microscopic and nanoscale in an intuitive and realistic way and enabling collaborative learning

Review of existing information on the interrelations between soil and climate change. (ClimSoil). Final report

Carbon stock in EU soils – The soil carbon stocks in the EU27 are around 75 billion tonnes of carbon (C); of this stock around 50% is located in Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom (because of the vast area of peatlands in these countries) and approximately 20% is in peatlands, mainly in countries in the northern part of Europe. The rest is in mineral soils, again the higher amount being in northern Europe. 2. Soils sink or source for CO2 in the EU – Both uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis and plant growth and loss of CO2 through decomposition of organic matter from terrestrial ecosystems are significant fluxes in Europe. Yet, the net terrestrial carbon fluxes are typically 5-10 times smaller relative to the emissions from use of fossil fuel of 4000 Mt CO2 per year. 3. Peat and organic soils - The largest emissions of CO2 from soils are resulting from land use change and especially drainage of organic soils and amount to 20-40 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year. The most effective option to manage soil carbon in order to mitigate climate change is to preserve existing stocks in soils, and especially the large stocks in peat and other soils with a high content of organic matter. 4. Land use and soil carbon – Land use and land use change significantly affects soil carbon stocks. On average, soils in Europe are most likely to be accumulating carbon on a net basis with a sink for carbon in soils under grassland and forest (from 0 - 100 billion tonnes of carbon per year) and a smaller source for carbon from soils under arable land (from 10 - 40 billion tonnes of carbon per year). Soil carbon losses occur when grasslands, managed forest lands or native ecosystems are converted to croplands and vice versa carbon stocks increase, albeit it slower, following conversion of cropland. 5. Soil management and soil carbon – Soil management has a large impact on soil carbon. Measures directed towards effective management of soil carbon are available and identified, and many of these are feasible and relatively inexpensive to implement. Management for lower nitrogen (N) emissions and lower C emissions is a useful approach to prevent trade off and swapping of emissions between the greenhouse gases CO2, methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). 6. Carbon sequestration – Even though effective in reducing or slowing the build up of CO2 in the atmosphere, soil carbon sequestration is surely no ‘golden bullet’ alone to fight climate change due to the limited magnitude of its effect and its potential reversibility; it could, nevertheless, play an important role in climate mitigation alongside other measures, especially because of its immediate availability and relative low cost for 'buying' us time. 7. Effects of climate change on soil carbon pools – Climate change is expected to have an impact on soil carbon in the longer term, but far less an impact than does land use change, land use and land management. We have not found strong and clear evidence for either overall and combined positive of negative impact of climate change (atmospheric CO2, temperature, precipitation) on soil carbon stocks. Due to the relatively large gross exchange of CO2 between atmosphere and soils and the significant stocks of carbon in soils, relatively small changes in these large and opposing fluxes of CO2, i.e. as result of land use (change), land management and climate change, may have significant impact on our climate and on soil quality. 8. Monitoring systems for changes in soil carbon – Currently, monitoring and knowledge on land use and land use change in EU27 is inadequate for accurate calculation of changes in soil carbon contents. Systematic and harmonized monitoring across EU27 and across relevant land uses would allow for adequate representation of changes in soil carbon in reporting emissions from soils and sequestration in soils to the UNFCCC. 9. EU policies and soil carbon – Environmental requirements under the Cross Compliance requirement of CAP is an instrument that may be used to maintain SOC. Neither measures under UNFCCC nor those mentioned in the proposed Soil Framework Directive are expected to adversely impact soil C. EU policy on renewable energy is not necessarily a guarantee for appropriate (soil) carbon management

Snaking and isolas of localised states in bistable discrete lattices

We consider localised states in a discrete bistable Allen-Cahn equation. This model equation combines bistability and local cell-to-cell coupling in the simplest possible way. The existence of stable localised states is made possible by pinning to the underlying lattice; they do not exist in the equivalent continuum equation. In particular we address the existence of 'isolas': closed curves of solutions in the bifurcation diagram. Isolas appear for some non-periodic boundary conditions in one spatial dimension but seem to appear generically in two dimensions. We point out how features of the bifurcation diagram in 1D help to explain some (unintuitive) features of the bifurcation diagram in 2D.Comment: 14 page

Implementation of an Evidence-Based, Electronic Clinical Algorithm to Improve Screening, Evaluation, and Referral of College Students for Depressive Symptoms and an Evaluation of Differences Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Data

The purpose of this project was to improve the screening, evaluation, and referral of college students (LGBTQ+/Heterosexual) for depressive symptoms through the implementation of an evidence-based, electronic clinical algorithm. There is evidence in the literature indicating that there are increased mental health disparities among college students and the LGBTQ+ population. The prevalence of depressive symptoms among university students is higher than the general population, requiring university student health centers to implement enhanced screenings for depressive symptoms and identification of depression predictors. Prior to implementation of this project, a student health clinic in the Southeastern part of the United States used a paper/pencil Patient Health Questionnaire 2 (PHQ-2) scale, followed by a paper/pencil Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), when appropriate, to screen for depressive symptoms. The specific aims of this project were to: (1) assess the effectiveness of an evidence-based electronic clinical algorithm to improve the evaluation of depressive symptoms among college students; (2) identify university students who self-report as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning + (LGBTQ+); and (3) assess knowledge and attitudes of healthcare providers toward the LGBTQ+ community. An evidence-based electronic clinical algorithm was created to improve screening of depressive symptoms for students seeking campus health services, a self-report question related to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) was added to the electronic intake form, and pre-post provider surveys of knowledge and attitudes toward the LGBTQ+ community were administered. The project was evaluated by assessing self-reported SOGI data; quantifying compliance with PHQ-2 and subsequent PHQ-9 screenings, when appropriate; and measuring knowledge and attitudes of healthcare providers pre and post-completion of a learning module. Data was collected for February through April, 2018 visits (pre-implementation) and February through April, 2019 visits (post-intervention). The pre-implementation of the electronic data form revealed that PHQ-2 screenings were offered to clinic students 44.3% of the time, with no follow-up of PHQ-9, when appropriate (0.0%); no SOGI data was requested; and no estimate was available for the prevalence of students who belonged to the LGBTQ+ community. Post implementation of the electronic data form, 93.2% of the students meeting inclusion criteria, received the PHQ-2 screening; all students scoring a positive score on the PHQ-2 were given the PHQ-9. The difference in PHQ-2 scores for heterosexual students and those self-reporting as members of the LGBTQ community, was insignificant. Students who self-reported as LGBTQ+ was 15.6%, compared to an estimated 4.5% of adults nationwide. A third assessment of provider knowledge and attitude toward the LGBTQ+ community showed no significant difference in scores pre and post completion of an LGBTQ+ teaching module

Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of submillimetre-selected galaxies

We present the results of deep near-infrared spectroscopy of seven submillimetre-selected galaxies from the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) 8-mJy Survey and Canada-UK Deep Submillimetre Survey (CUDSS). These galaxies were selected because they are too faint to be accessible to optical spectrographs on large telescopes. We obtain a spectroscopic redshift for one object, and likely redshifts for two more, based on a combination of marginal emission-line detections and the shape of the continuum. All three redshifts broadly agree with estimates from their radio/submm spectral energy distributions. From the emission-line strengths of these objects, we infer star formation rates of 10-25 M⊙ yr−1, while the lack of detections in the other objects imply even lower rates. By comparing our results with those of other authors, we conclude it is likely that the vast majority (more than 90 per cent) of the star formation in these objects is completely extinguished at rest-frame optical wavelengths, and the emission lines originate in a relatively unobscured region. Finally, we look at future prospects for making spectroscopic redshift determinations of submm galaxie

The Global academic research organization network: Data sharing to cure diseases and enable learning health systems.

Introduction:Global data sharing is essential. This is the premise of the Academic Research Organization (ARO) Council, which was initiated in Japan in 2013 and has since been expanding throughout Asia and into Europe and the United States. The volume of data is growing exponentially, providing not only challenges but also the clear opportunity to understand and treat diseases in ways not previously considered. Harnessing the knowledge within the data in a successful way can provide researchers and clinicians with new ideas for therapies while avoiding repeats of failed experiments. This knowledge transfer from research into clinical care is at the heart of a learning health system. Methods:The ARO Council wishes to form a worldwide complementary system for the benefit of all patients and investigators, catalyzing more efficient and innovative medical research processes. Thus, they have organized Global ARO Network Workshops to bring interested parties together, focusing on the aspects necessary to make such a global effort successful. One such workshop was held in Austin, Texas, in November 2017. Representatives from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States reported on their efforts to encourage data sharing and to use research to inform care through learning health systems. Results:This experience report summarizes presentations and discussions at the Global ARO Network Workshop held in November 2017 in Austin, TX, with representatives from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Europe, and the United States. Themes and recommendations to progress their efforts are explored. Standardization and harmonization are at the heart of these discussions to enable data sharing. In addition, the transformation of clinical research processes through disruptive innovation, while ensuring integrity and ethics, will be key to achieving the ARO Council goal to overcome diseases such that people not only live longer but also are healthier and happier as they age. Conclusions:The achievement of global learning health systems will require further exploration, consensus-building, funding aligned with incentives for data sharing, standardization, harmonization, and actions that support global interests for the benefit of patients