An agenda for research and action toward diverse and just futures for life on Earth.

Decades of research and policy interventions on biodiversity have insufficiently addressed the dual issues of biodiversity degradation and social justice. New approaches are therefore needed. We devised a research and action agenda that calls for a collective task of revisiting biodiversity toward the goal of sustaining diverse and just futures for life on Earth. Revisiting biodiversity involves critically reflecting on past and present research, policy, and practice concerning biodiversity to inspire creative thinking about the future. The agenda was developed through a 2-year dialogue process that involved close to 300 experts from diverse disciplines and locations. This process was informed by social science insights that show biodiversity research and action is underpinned by choices about how problems are conceptualized. Recognizing knowledge, action, and ethics as inseparable, we synthesized a set of principles that help navigate the task of revisiting biodiversity. The agenda articulates 4 thematic areas for future research. First, researchers need to revisit biodiversity narratives by challenging conceptualizations that exclude diversity and entrench the separation of humans, cultures, economies, and societies from nature. Second, researchers should focus on the relationships between the Anthropocene, biodiversity, and culture by considering humanity and biodiversity as tied together in specific contexts. Third, researchers should focus on nature and economies by better accounting for the interacting structures of economic and financial systems as core drivers of biodiversity loss. Finally, researchers should enable transformative biodiversity research and action by reconfiguring relationships between human and nonhuman communities in and through science, policy, and practice. Revisiting biodiversity necessitates a renewed focus on dialogue among biodiversity communities and beyond that critically reflects on the past to channel research and action toward fostering just and diverse futures for human and nonhuman life on Earth.

Una Agenda para la Investigación y la Acción hacia un Futuro Diverso y Justo para la Vida sobre la Tierra Resumen Las décadas de investigación e intervenciones políticas sobre la biodiversidad han tratado significativamente los temas de la degradación de la biodiversidad y la justicia social. Debido a esto, se requieren nuevas estrategias. Diseñamos una agenda de investigación y acción que llama a la labor colectiva de revisar la biodiversidad hacia el objetivo de sustentar un futuro diverso y justo para la vida sobre la Tierra. Cuando se revisa la biodiversidad, se requiere de una reflexión crítica sobre las investigaciones, políticas y prácticas presentes y pasadas sobre la biodiversidad para inspirar un pensamiento creativo acerca del futuro. Desarrollamos la agenda por medio de un proceso de diálogo de dos años que involucró a casi 300 expertos de diversas disciplinas y localidades. Este proceso estuvo orientado por el conocimiento de las ciencias sociales que muestra cómo la investigación y la acción para la biodiversidad están sostenidas por las opciones de cómo están conceptualizados los problemas. Reconocimos al conocimiento, la acción y la ética como inseparables y sintetizamos un conjunto de principios que ayuda a navegar la labor de revisar la biodiversidad. La agenda articula cuatro áreas temáticas para la investigación en el futuro. Primero, los investigadores necesitan revisar las narrativas de la biodiversidad mediante el cuestionamiento de las conceptualizaciones que excluyen a la diversidad y consolidan la separación entre humanos, culturas, economías y sociedades y la naturaleza. Segundo, los investigadores deberían enfocarse en las relaciones entre el antropoceno, la biodiversidad y la cultura al considerar a la humanidad y la biodiversidad como interconectadas en contextos específicos. Tercero, los investigadores deberían enfocarse en la naturaleza y las economías al tener en mejor cuenta la interacción de las estructuras de los sistemas económico y financiero como conductores nucleares de la pérdida de la biodiversidad. Finalmente, los investigadores deberían permitir la investigación y acción transformadoras de la biodiversidad al reconfigurar las relaciones entre las comunidades humanas y no humanas dentro y a través de la ciencia, la política y la práctica. La revisión de la biodiversidad necesita de un enfoque renovado sobre el diálogo entre las comunidades de la biodiversidad y más allá, que reflexione críticamente sobre el pasado para canalizar a la investigación y acción hacia el fomento del futuro justo y diverso para la vida humana y no humana sobre la Tierra.

Boundary spanning at the science-policy interface: the practitioners' perspectives.

Cultivating a more dynamic relationship between science and policy is essential for responding to complex social challenges such as sustainability. One approach to doing so is to "span the boundaries" between science and decision making and create a more comprehensive and inclusive knowledge exchange process. The exact definition and role of boundary spanning, however, can be nebulous. Indeed, boundary spanning often gets conflated and confused with other approaches to connecting science and policy, such as science communication, applied science, and advocacy, which can hinder progress in the field of boundary spanning. To help overcome this, in this perspective, we present the outcomes from a recent workshop of boundary-spanning practitioners gathered to (1) articulate a definition of what it means to work at this interface ("boundary spanning") and the types of activities it encompasses; (2) present a value proposition of these efforts to build better relationships between science and policy; and (3) identify opportunities to more effectively mainstream boundary-spanning activities. Drawing on our collective experiences, we suggest that boundary spanning has the potential to increase the efficiency by which useful research is produced, foster the capacity to absorb new evidence and perspectives into sustainability decision-making, enhance research relevance for societal challenges, and open new policy windows. We provide examples from our work that illustrate this potential. By offering these propositions for the value of boundary spanning, we hope to encourage a more robust discussion of how to achieve evidence-informed decision-making for sustainability.

Wrestling with the complexity of evaluation for organizations at the boundary of science, policy, and practice.

Boundary organizations are situated between science, policy, and practice and have a goal of supporting communication and collaboration among these sectors. They have been promoted as a way to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts by building stronger relationships between scientists, policy makers, industry, and practitioners (Cook et al. 2013). Although their promise has been discussed in theory, the work of and expectations for boundary organizations are less defined in practice. Biodiversity conservation is characterized by complexity, uncertainty, dissent, and tight budgets, so boundary organizations face the challenging task of demonstrating their value to diverse stakeholders. We examined the challenges boundary organizations face when seeking to evaluate their work and thus aimed to encourage more productive conversations about evaluation of boundary organizations and their projects. Although no off-the-shelf solution is available for a given boundary organization, we identified 4 principles that will support effective evaluation for boundary organizations: engage diverse stakeholders, support learning and reflection, assess contribution to change, and align evaluation with assumption and values.

The self-reported oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers.

AIM: To report the oral health status and dental attendance of smokers and non-smokers. METHODS: A postal survey enquiring about smoking status, stop smoking advice, dental attendance and perceptions of oral health was conducted in Yorkshire and the Humber, U.K., in 2008. To address potential biases data were weighted to account for variations in gender, age and deprivation. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression. RESULTS: A response rate of 43.1% was achieved (n=10,864). Across all deprivation quintiles, smokers (17.5% of respondents) were more likely than non-smokers to report fair, poor or very poor oral health (p<0.001). Smokers in the least deprived areas were more likely than non-smokers to attend the dentist symptomatically (p<0.001). Advice to quit was most frequently gained from GP services followed by NHS Stop Smoking Services and dental teams. CONCLUSIONS: Smokers were more likely than non-smokers to have a poor self-rated oral health status and attend the dentist symptomatically, irrespective of deprivation.

The oral health of adults in Yorkshire and Humber 2008.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Although national surveys are conducted of the oral health of adults in the UK, few data are available at regional and primary care trust levels to inform local commissioning. A postal survey was conducted to investigate the oral health and use of dental services by adults in the Yorkshire and Humber region. METHOD: A questionnaire was developed and piloted, then sent to a random sample of 25,200 adults. Data were analysed by sex, gender, age and deprivation. RESULTS: 10,864 (43.0%) questionnaires were returned completed. Nearly three-quarters (71.6%) of respondents had 20 or more teeth and approximately one quarter (25.3%) rated their oral health as fair, poor or very poor. The percentage reporting painful aching, discomfort when eating and being self-conscious about their mouths (occasionally or more often in the last 12 months) were 28.8%, 32.8% and 29.1% respectively. Overall, 80.3% reported attending a dentist in the last two years, although nearly a quarter (22.6%) of respondents reported difficulties accessing routine care. However, there were marked inequalities between those living in the most and least deprived neighbourhoods. CONCLUSION: This survey was the first to investigate the oral health and service use of adults in the Yorkshire and Humber region. The findings have implications for the local commissioning of dental services.

School-based epidemiological surveys and the impact of positive consent requirements.

A requirement to obtain positive consent for participants in school-based dental epidemiological surveys was introduced in 2006. Concern has been expressed about the impact of the changes on the validity of results as the need to obtain positive consent is likely to reduce the numbers participating. An additional concern is that the new requirement may also lead to samples that are biased, resulting in them being unrepresentative of the population from which they are drawn. This paper aims to discuss the implications of the changes on the quality of future school-based dental epidemiological surveys, and whether they threaten the validity of survey findings at a time when such information is critical in informing the local commissioning of dental services.

Ecological effects of antibiotic production by dermatophyte fungi.

Antibiotic production by dermatophyte fungi has been demonstrated in vivo in the lesions of patients with dermatomycoses. Patients infected with antibiotic-producing strains more frequently carried cocci resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics than did patients infected with non-producer strains. The total bacterial load was less in lesions caused by producer fungi. In vitro studies demonstrated the selection of penicillin-resistant S. aureus from mixed populations of resistant and sensitive cells.

Antibiotic production by dermatophyte fungi.

Thirty-two clinical isolates of anthropophlic dermatophytes were examined for their capacity to produce antibiotics in liquid culture and on human stratum corneum in vitro. Antibiotics were detected and classified using agar diffusion bioassays and chromatographic analysis. Twenty-four isolates produced antibiotic substances in liquid culture filtrates; some strains produced more than one antibiotic. Only four isolates produced detectable levels of antibiotics when grown on stratum corneum unless an artificial sweat mixture was used as a nutrient supplement, when the number rose 11. Respresentatives of all species studied produced benzyl penicillin-like substances. Some Trichophyton isolates also produced streptomycin-like antibiotics, a characteristic previously unrecorded for eukaryotic organisms. Other antibiotics, which apart from azalomycin F could not be properly classified, were produced by Epidermophyton floccosum. Antibiotic production occurred over the normal skin temperature range but sometimes the type of antibiotic produced and the frequency of detection appeared to be influenced by the incubation temperature.