Addressing the challenges of climate-driven community-led resettlement and site expansion: knowledge sharing, storytelling, healing, and collaborative coalition building.

Presently coastal areas globally are becoming unviable, with people no longer able to maintain livelihoods and settlements due to, for example, increasing floods, storm surges, coastal erosion, and sea level rise, yet there exist significant policy obstacles and practical and regulatory challenges to community-led and community-wide responses. For many receiving support only at the individual level for relocation or other adaptive responses, individual and community harm is perpetuated through the loss of culture and identity incurred through forced assimilation policies. Often, challenges dealt to frontline communities are founded on centuries of injustices. Can these challenges of both norms and policies be addressed? Can we develop socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically just sustainable adaptation processes that supports community responses, maintenance and evolution of traditions, and rejuvenates regenerative life-supporting ecosystems? This article brings together Indigenous community leaders, knowledge-holders, and allied collaborators from Louisiana, Hawai'i, Alaska, Borikén/Puerto Rico, and the Marshall Islands, to share their stories and lived experiences of the relocation and other adaptive challenges in their homelands and territories, the obstacles posed by the state or regional governments in community adaptation efforts, ideas for transforming the research paradigm from expecting communities to answer scientific questions to having scientists address community priorities, and the healing processes that communities are employing. The contributors are connected through the Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences, which brings together Indigenous, tribal, and community leaders, atmospheric, social, biological, and ecological scientists, students, educators, and other experts, and facilitates intercultural, relational-based approaches for understanding and adapting to extreme weather and climate events, climate variability, and climate change.

Impact of informational and relational continuity for people with palliative care needs: a mixed methods rapid review.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and synthesise existing literature exploring the impact of relational and informational continuity of care on preferred place of death, hospital admissions and satisfaction for palliative care patients in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods literature. DESIGN: A mixed methods rapid review. METHODS: PUBMED, PsychINFO, CINAHL were searched from June 2008 to June 2018 in order to identify original peer reviewed, primary qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods research exploring the impact of continuity of care for people receiving palliative care. Synthesis methods as outlined by the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods Group were applied to qualitative studies while meta-analyses for quantitative data were planned. OUTCOMES: The impact of interventions designed to promote continuity of care for people receiving palliative care on the following outcomes was explored: achieving preferred place of death, satisfaction with care and avoidable hospital admissions. RESULTS: 18 eligible papers were identified (11 qualitative, 6 quantitative and 1 mixed methods papers). In all, 1951 patients and 190 family caregivers were recruited across included studies. Meta-analyses were not possible due to heterogeneity in outcome measures and tools used. Two studies described positive impact on facilitating preferred place of death. Four described a reduction in avoidable hospital admissions. No negative impacts of interventions designed to promote continuity were reported. Patient satisfaction was not assessed in quantitative studies. Participants described a significant impact on their experiences as a result of the lack of informational and relational continuity. CONCLUSIONS: This rapid review highlights the impact that continuity of care can have on the experiences of patients receiving palliative care. The evidence for the impact of continuity on place of death and hospital admissions is limited. Methods for enhancing, and recording continuity should be considered in the design and development of future healthcare interventions to support people receiving palliative care.

Genome-wide association mapping of agronomic and morphologic traits in highly structured populations of barley cultivars.

Genome-wide association study (GWAS) has become an obvious general approach for studying traits of agricultural importance in higher plants, especially crops. Here, we present a GWAS of 32 morphologic and 10 agronomic traits in a collection of 615 barley cultivars genotyped by genome-wide polymorphisms from a recently developed barley oligonucleotide pool assay. Strong population structure effect related to mixed sampling based on seasonal growth habit and ear row number is present in this barley collection. Comparison of seven statistical approaches in a genome-wide scan for significant associations with or without correction for confounding by population structure, revealed that in reducing false positive rates while maintaining statistical power, a mixed linear model solution outperforms genomic control, structured association, stepwise regression control and principal components adjustment. The present study reports significant associations for sixteen morphologic and nine agronomic traits and demonstrates the power and feasibility of applying GWAS to explore complex traits in highly structured plant samples.

Whole-genome association mapping in elite inbred crop varieties.

We have previously shown that linkage disequilibrium (LD) in the elite cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare) gene pool extends, on average, for <1-5 cM. Based on this information, we have developed a platform for whole genome association studies that comprises a collection of elite lines that we have characterized at 3060 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker loci. Interrogating this data set shows that significant population substructure is present within the elite gene pool and that diversity and LD vary considerably across each of the seven barley chromosomes. However, we also show that a subpopulation comprised of only the two-rowed spring germplasm is less structured and well suited to whole genome association studies without the need for extensive statistical intervention to account for structure. At the current marker density, the two-rowed spring population is suited for fine mapping simple traits that are located outside of the genetic centromeres with a resolution that is sufficient for candidate gene identification by exploiting conservation of synteny with fully sequenced model genomes and the emerging barley physical map.

Enhancing electron transfer at a cytochrome c-immobilized microelectrode and macroelectrode.

The redox reaction of cytochrome c immobilized on the bare surfaces of microelectrodes and macroscopic electrodes (macroelectrodes) composed of different planes of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite has been investigated using cyclic voltammetry. The protein-immobilized microelectrodes were fabricated using a simple masking method. For both macroelectrodes and microelectrodes, the redox reaction of immobilized cytochrome c needs to be activated by increasing the electrochemical potential maximum of cyclic voltammetry to a high positive value. The redox currents of this protein-electrode system can be enhanced using two approaches. The oxidation and reduction currents of cytochrome c adsorbed on microelectrodes that are composed of the edge plane show an anomalous enhancement compared to those for macroelectrodes composed of the basal plane. The difference in the surface chemical properties of the two kinds of electrodes results in the current anomaly. The oxidation current of the macroelectrode can be selectively enhanced by decreasing the potential minimum.