Wilderness forms and their implications for global environmental policy and conservation.

With the intention of securing industry-free land and seascapes, protecting wilderness entered international policy as a formal target for the first time in the zero draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Given this increased prominence in international policy, it is timely to consider the extent to which the construct of wilderness supports global conservation objectives. We evaluated the construct by overlaying recently updated cumulative human pressure maps that offer a global-scale delineation of industry-free land as wilderness with maps of carbon stock, species richness, and ground travel time from urban centers. Wilderness areas took variable forms in relation to carbon stock, species richness, and proximity to urban centers, where 10% of wilderness areas represented high carbon and species richness, 20% low carbon and species richness, and 3% high levels of remoteness (>48 h), carbon, and species richness. Approximately 35% of all remaining wilderness in 2013 was accessible in <24 h of travel time from urban centers. Although the construct of wilderness can be used to secure benefits in specific contexts, its application in conservation must account for contextual and social implications. The diverse characterization of wilderness under a global environmental conservation lens shows that a nuanced framing and application of the construct is needed to improve understanding, communication, and retention of its variable forms as industry-free places.

Formas de las Áreas Silvestres y sus Implicaciones para las Políticas y la Conservación Mundial Resumen Con la intención de asegurar paisajes terrestres y marinos libres de la industria, la protección de las áreas silvestres entró a la política internacional por primera vez como un objetivo formal en el primer borrador del Marco de Trabajo para la Biodiversidad Mundial Post-2020 bajo el Convenio sobre la Diversidad Biológica. Con este incremento en la presencia dentro de la política internacional, es oportuno considerar el grado al que el concepto de área silvestre ayuda a los objetivos de conservación mundial. Evaluamos este concepto mediante la superposición de mapas de la presión humana acumulada recientemente actualizados que brindan una definición a escala mundial de las tierras libres de industria con mapas del stock de carbono, riqueza de especies y el tiempo de traslado terrestre desde los centros urbanos. Las áreas silvestres mostraron formas variables con respecto al stock de carbono, la riqueza de especies y la cercanía a los centros urbanos, de las cuales el 10% representó una elevada riqueza de especies y presencia de carbono, el 20% una baja riqueza de especies y presencia de carbono y el 3% una elevada lejanía (>48 horas), presencia de carbono y riqueza de especies. Aproximadamente el 35% de todas las áreas silvestres en 2013 era accesible en <24 horas de traslado desde los centros urbanos. Aunque el concepto de áreas silvestres puede usarse para garantizar beneficios en contextos específicos, su aplicación en la conservación debe considerar las implicaciones contextuales y sociales. La caracterización diversa de las áreas silvestres bajo el lente de la conservación ambiental mundial muestra que un encuadre matizado y la aplicación de este concepto son necesarios para aumentar el conocimiento, la comunicación y la retención de sus formas variables como lugares libres de industria.

MhcII Regulates Transmission of α-Synuclein-Seeded Pathology in Mice.

MHCII molecules, expressed by professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) such as T cells and B cells, are hypothesized to play a key role in the response of cellular immunity to α-synuclein (α-syn). However, the role of cellular immunity in the neuroanatomic transmission of α-syn pre-formed fibrillar (PFF) seeds is undetermined. To illuminate whether cellular immunity influences the transmission of α-syn seeds from the periphery into the CNS, we injected preformed α-syn PFFs in the hindlimb of the Line M83 transgenic mouse model of synucleinopathy lacking MhcII. We showed that a complete deficiency in MhcII accelerated the appearance of seeded α-syn pathology and shortened the lifespan of the PFF-seeded M83 mice. To characterize whether B-cell and T-cell inherent MhcII function underlies this accelerated response to PFF seeding, we next injected α-syn PFFs in Rag1-/- mice which completely lacked these mature lymphocytes. There was no alteration in the lifespan or burden of endstage α-syn pathology in the PFF-seeded, Rag1-deficient M83+/- mice. Together, these results suggested that MhcII function on immune cells other than these classical APCs is potentially involved in the propagation of α-syn in this model of experimental synucleinopathy. We focused on microglia next, finding that while microglial burden was significantly upregulated in PFF-seeded, MhcII-deficient mice relative to controls, the microglial activation marker Cd68 was reduced in these mice, suggesting that these microglia were not responsive. Additional analysis of the CNS showed the early appearance of the neurotoxic astrocyte A1 signature and the induction of the Ifnγ-inducible anti-viral response mediated by MhcI in the MhcII-deficient, PFF-seeded mice. Overall, our data suggest that the loss of MhcII function leads to a dysfunctional response in non-classical APCs and that this response could potentially play a role in determining PFF-induced pathology. Collectively, our results identify the critical role of MhcII function in synucleinopathies induced by α-syn prion seeds.

Developing shared qualitative models for complex systems.

Understanding complex systems is essential to ensure their conservation and effective management. Models commonly support understanding of complex ecological systems and, by extension, their conservation. Modeling, however, is largely a social process constrained by individuals' mental models (i.e., a small-scale internal model of how a part of the world works based on knowledge, experience, values, beliefs, and assumptions) and system complexity. To account for both system complexity and the diversity of knowledge of complex systems, we devised a novel way to develop a shared qualitative complex system model. We disaggregated a system (carbonate coral reefs) into smaller subsystem modules that each represented a functioning unit, about which an individual is likely to have more comprehensive knowledge. This modular approach allowed us to elicit an individual mental model of a defined subsystem for which the individuals had a higher level of confidence in their knowledge of the relationships between variables. The challenge then was to bring these subsystem models together to form a complete, shared model of the entire system, which we attempted through 4 phases: develop the system framework and subsystem modules; develop the individual mental model elicitation methods; elicit the mental models; and identify and isolate differences for exploration and identify similarities to cocreate a shared qualitative model. The shared qualitative model provides opportunities to develop a quantitative model to understand and predict complex system change.

Desarrollo de Modelos Cualitativos Compartidos para Sistemas Complejos Resumen El entendimiento de los sistemas complejos es esencial para asegurar su conservación y manejo efectivo. Es común que los modelos respalden el entendimiento de los sistemas ecológicos complejos y, por extensión, su conservación. Sin embargo, el modelado es principalmente un proceso social restringido por los modelos mentales de los individuos (es decir, un modelo interno a pequeña escala de cómo funciona una parte del mundo con base en el conocimiento, las experiencias, valores, creencias y suposiciones) y la complejidad del sistema. Para considerar tanto la complejidad del sistema como la diversidad de conocimiento sobre los sistemas complejos, diseñamos un método novedoso para desarrollar un modelo cualitativo de sistemas complejos. Desglosamos un sistema (arrecifes de coral de carbonato) en módulos más pequeños o subsistemas y cada uno representó una unidad funcional, sobre la cual es más probable que un individuo tenga mayor conocimiento integral. Este enfoque modular nos permitió obtener un modelo mental individual de un subsistema definido para el cual los individuos tuvieron un nivel más alto de confianza en su conocimiento sobre las relaciones entre las variables. Entonces, el reto fue juntar estos modelos de subsistemas para formar un modelo compartido completo del sistema entero, lo cual intentamos a lo largo de cuatro fases: desarrollar el marco de trabajo para el sistema y los módulos de los subsistemas; desarrollar los métodos de obtención para los modelos mentales individuales; obtener los modelos mentales; e identificar y aislar las diferencias para la exploración, así como identificar similitudes para crear conjuntamente un modelo cualitativo compartido. El modelo cualitativo compartido proporciona oportunidades para desarrollar un modelo cuantitativo que permita entender y predecir el cambio en los sistemas complejos.

Re-orienting health systems through a commissioning approach: finding solutions for improved consumer engagement.

As many developed health systems grapple with the reorientation of their systems to those that are commissioning led, consumer engagement has emerged as an important theme. Despite many governments asserting the importance of consumer engagement in commissioning, an evidence base is yet to be developed to support this approach. This paper identifies the challenges and gaps in the literature relating to consumer engagement and commissioning, before setting out five potential solutions to these challenges. Ultimately, consumer engagement needs clarity of purpose and any approach should be tailored to context. Effective client involvement needs time and investment. To embark on such a process without this effort can be counterproductive.

Hazard Experience, Geophysical Vulnerability, and Flood Risk Perceptions in a Postdisaster City, the Case of New Orleans.

This article investigates the determinants of flood risk perceptions in New Orleans, Louisiana (United States), a deltaic coastal city highly vulnerable to seasonal nuisance flooding and hurricane-induced deluges and storm surges. Few studies have investigated the influence of hazard experience, geophysical vulnerability (hazard proximity), and risk perceptions in cities undergoing postdisaster recovery and rebuilding. We use ordinal logistic regression techniques to analyze experiential, geophysical, and sociodemographic variables derived from a survey of 384 residents in seven neighborhoods. We find that residents living in neighborhoods that flooded during Hurricane Katrina exhibit higher levels of perceived risk than those residents living in neighborhoods that did not flood. In addition, findings suggest that flood risk perception is positively associated with female gender, lower income, and direct flood experiences. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of these findings for theoretical and empirical research on environmental risk, flood risk communication strategies, and flood hazards planning.

Creating institutional flexibility for adaptive water management: insights from two management agencies.

Adaptive management is an experimental approach used by water management agencies around the world to manage and restore aquatic ecosystems. The effectiveness of the approach can often be constrained by inflexible institutional arrangements. In this paper we compare two cases where agencies have implemented adaptive management to manage and restore aquatic ecosystems. Our aim was to understand practitioners' perceptions of how institutional flexibility can be created for adaptive management. We interviewed 14 adaptive management practitioners working in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia and 14 practitioners in Southern Florida, United States of America. We found that in both cases, just enough flexibility was created to enable experimentation, but informal institutional arrangements tended to constrain adaptive management. We also found that adaptive management was effective when an agency adopted collaborative and distributed leadership, but these leadership styles were difficult to sustain, and not always appropriate when attempting to create institutional flexibility. Our results illustrate how agencies, stakeholders and researchers can develop a shared understanding of how to manage and restore aquatic ecosystems, which in turn, helps create institutional flexibility for an agency to manage adaptively.

A guide to understanding social science research for natural scientists.

Natural scientists are increasingly interested in social research because they recognize that conservation problems are commonly social problems. Interpreting social research, however, requires at least a basic understanding of the philosophical principles and theoretical assumptions of the discipline, which are embedded in the design of social research. Natural scientists who engage in social science but are unfamiliar with these principles and assumptions can misinterpret their results. We developed a guide to assist natural scientists in understanding the philosophical basis of social science to support the meaningful interpretation of social research outcomes. The 3 fundamental elements of research are ontology, what exists in the human world that researchers can acquire knowledge about; epistemology, how knowledge is created; and philosophical perspective, the philosophical orientation of the researcher that guides her or his action. Many elements of the guide also apply to the natural sciences. Natural scientists can use the guide to assist them in interpreting social science research to determine how the ontological position of the researcher can influence the nature of the research; how the epistemological position can be used to support the legitimacy of different types of knowledge; and how philosophical perspective can shape the researcher's choice of methods and affect interpretation, communication, and application of results. The use of this guide can also support and promote the effective integration of the natural and social sciences to generate more insightful and relevant conservation research outcomes.

A multidisciplinary conceptualization of conservation opportunity.

An opportunity represents an advantageous combination of circumstances that allows goals to be achieved. We reviewed the nature of opportunity and how it manifests in different subsystems (e.g., biophysical, social, political, economic) as conceptualized in other bodies of literature, including behavior, adoption, entrepreneur, public policy, and resilience literature. We then developed a multidisciplinary conceptualization of conservation opportunity. We identified 3 types of conservation opportunity: potential, actors remove barriers to problem solving by identifying the capabilities within the system that can be manipulated to create support for conservation action; traction, actors identify windows of opportunity that arise from exogenous shocks, events, or changes that remove barriers to solving problems; and existing, everything is in place for conservation action (i.e., no barriers exist) and an actor takes advantage of the existing circumstances to solve problems. Different leverage points characterize each type of opportunity. Thus, unique stages of opportunity identification or creation and exploitation exist: characterizing the system and defining problems; identifying potential solutions; assessing the feasibility of solutions; identifying or creating opportunities; and taking advantage of opportunities. These stages can be undertaken independently or as part of a situational analysis and typically comprise the first stage, but they can also be conducted iteratively throughout a conservation planning process. Four types of entrepreneur can be identified (business, policy, social, and conservation), each possessing attributes that enable them to identify or create opportunities and take advantage of them. We examined how different types of conservation opportunity manifest in a social-ecological system (the Great Barrier Reef) and how they can be taken advantage of. Our multidisciplinary conceptualization of conservation opportunity strengthens and legitimizes the concept.

Mitochondrial genomes of Pleistocene megafauna retrieved from recent sediment layers of two Siberian lakes.

Ancient environmental DNA (aeDNA) from lake sediments has yielded remarkable insights for the reconstruction of past ecosystems, including suggestions of late survival of extinct species. However, translocation and lateral inflow of DNA in sediments can potentially distort the stratigraphic signal of the DNA. Using three different approaches on two short lake sediment cores of the Yamal peninsula, West Siberia, with ages spanning only the past hundreds of years, we detect DNA and identified mitochondrial genomes of multiple mammoth and woolly rhinoceros individuals-both species that have been extinct for thousands of years on the mainland. The occurrence of clearly identifiable aeDNA of extinct Pleistocene megafauna (e.g. >400 K reads in one core) throughout these two short subsurface cores, along with specificities of sedimentology and dating, confirm that processes acting on regional scales, such as extensive permafrost thawing, can influence the aeDNA record and should be accounted for in aeDNA paleoecology.

From Colorblindness to Critical Investigations: Examining Structural Racism in Social Work Research.

Current and persistent racialized inequalities in the United States raise important research questions investigating the social structures and systems that underlie racist outcomes. Consequently, social workers are called to centralize race and racism in their research agendas and utilize critical race theories and methodologies to examine institutional racism. This study investigates the extent to which critical race frameworks are utilized in mainstream social work research. The researchers conducted a content analysis of three top-ranked mainstream social work research journals (N = 407) to determine the extent to which critical race theories and methodologies are utilized for the investigation of institutional racism. Findings demonstrate a dearth of critical investigation into issues of race and racism in mainstream social work research as well as the underutilization of critical race frameworks. In conclusion, researchers argue for a critical shift in mainstream social work research through utilizing critical race theoretical frameworks and methodologies.

Personal circumstances and social characteristics as determinants of landholder participation in biodiversity conservation programs.

Adequate conservation of biodiversity on private land remains elusive due, in part, to a failure to understand the personal circumstances and social characteristics of private landholders. Our aim was to identify those personal and social dimensions of landholders that might contribute to improved conservation policy and program design and, thereby, participation in private land conservation. We tested whether personal circumstances of landholders (e.g., lifestyle and wellbeing, information and knowledge, financial security) and social characteristics (e.g., attitudes, norms, and trust) would be important predictors of landholders' capacity and willingness to participate in biodiversity conservation programs. Forty-five participants and twenty-nine non-participants of biodiversity conservation programs in north Queensland, Australia, were surveyed to: 1) examine differences between their personal circumstances and social characteristics that may influence participation; and 2) explore whether personal circumstances and social characteristics were influenced by participation. The results revealed that, compared to participants, non-participants in conservation programs had significantly different personal circumstances and social characteristics for four of eight measured variables. Compared to participants, non-participants demonstrated a reduced capacity and willingness to participate in conservation programs. Participation did not appear to have a strong influence on participants' personal circumstances or social characteristics, and when social norms supported conservation, programs did not demonstrate additionality. Conservation policies that maintain or improve landholders' personal circumstances and that promote pro-environmental norms may result in increased participation and thereby conservation outcomes.

Social factors and private benefits influence landholders' riverine restoration priorities in tropical Australia.

Private land conservation is an essential component of conservation that requires organizing both protection and restoration actions accordingly. Yet private land conservation programs are often formulated to generate public benefits, with inadequate consideration of costs or benefits to private landholders. Landholders' willingness to participate in conservation programs depends on a complex set of social factors, and the benefits they expect from participation. However, these two attributes are commonly evaluated independent of one another. We addressed this limitation through interviews aimed at determining landholders': 1) willingness to participate in restoration programs; 2) barriers to participation; 3) prioritization of proposed riverine restoration actions; 4) expected public or private benefits for undertaking proposed riverine restoration actions; and 5) most preferred incentive for undertaking proposed restoration actions on their land. Our results revealed four main findings. First, landholders stated that biases towards ecological rather than production outcomes, impractical programs, and government mistrust (structural factors) were the major barriers that prevented them from participating in riverine restoration on their land. Second, private benefits influenced landholders' willingness to engage riverine restoration. Third, 'a sense of stewardship and improved landscape aesthetics' (an internal factor) was the most commonly reported private benefit. Fourth, the most preferred incentives for high priority restoration actions were cash for on-ground works, extension and community recognition. We highlight the importance of designing private land conservation programs that align with landholders' priorities and deliver public benefits.

A landholder-based approach to the design of private-land conservation programs.

Many ecosystems exist primarily, or solely, on privately owned (freehold) or managed (leasehold) land. In rural and semirural areas, local and regional government agencies are commonly responsible for encouraging landholders to conserve native vegetation and species on these private properties. Yet these agencies often lack the capacity to design and implement conservation programs tailored to rural and semirural landholdings and instead offer one program to all landholders. Landholders may elect not to participate because the program is irrelevant to their property or personal needs; consequently, vegetation-retention objectives may not be achieved. We differentiated landholders in Queensland, Australia, according to whether they derived income from the land (production landholders) or not (nonproduction landholders). We compared these two groups to identify similarities and differences that may inform the use of policy instruments (e.g., voluntary, economic, and regulatory) in conservation program design. We interviewed 45 landholders participating in three different conservation agreement programs (price-based rate [property tax] rebate; market-based tender; and voluntary, permanent covenant). Production landholders were more likely to participate in short-term programs that offered large financial incentives that applied to <25% of their property. Nonproduction landholders were more likely to participate in long-term programs that were voluntary or offered small financial incentives that applied to >75% of their property. These results may be explained by significant differences in the personal circumstances of production and nonproduction landholders (income, education, health) and differences in their norms (beliefs about how an individual is expected to act) and attitudes. Knowledge of these differences may allow for development of conservation programs that better meet the needs of landholders and thus increase participation in conservation programs and retention of native vegetation.

Understanding the Experience of an Extreme Event: A Personal Reflection.

Mental models, which include our assumptions about how the world works, influence how we experience extreme events, such as the Australian bushfires. In turn, they can be altered by those experiences. Understanding (changes to) our mental models can help communities plan for, and recover from, extreme events.

Mainstreaming Gender: An Examination of Feminist Methodology in Social Work Research.

Despite gender being central to any given social issue and the profession of social work's commitment to social justice, gender and gender inequality remain tangential to mainstream social work goals as partially indicated by the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative led by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Feminist methodologists prioritize the investigation of gender inequality by elevating the voices of oppressed groups, particularly women, using qualitative and mixed-methods studies, focusing on structural social change, and emphasizing the need for intersectional inquiry. Feminist and other critical methodologies frame structural inequality as central to the examination of all social issues and research questions. This study investigates the extent to which gender and gender inequality are investigated in mainstream social work research. Specifically, drawing on 404 research articles from three mainstream social work journals, this research relies on content analysis to demonstrate the dearth of studies examining gender and gender inequality in mainstream social work research. This work also presents opportunities for social workers to position gender as central to understanding persisting structural inequalities of the 21st century and work toward a more equitable social order.