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In The Right to Higher Education, Christopher Martin develops a powerful, autonomy-based argument that there is a moral right to access to higher education. I raise three concerns about whether this argument succeeds. The first is a concern about the conception of autonomy at the heart of Martin’s argument; the second is a concern about possible overgeneralizations of the argument; and the third is a concern about whether Martin’s view is consonant with judgments about fairness.

ObjectiveNoninvasive ventilation (NIV) improves survival and quality of life in motor neuron disease (MND), but many patients fail to receive effective ventilation. This study aimed to map the respiratory clinical care for MND patients at a service and individual healthcare professional (HCP) level to understand where attention may be needed to ensure all patients receive optimal care.MethodsTwo online surveys of HCPs working with MND patients in the UK were conducted. Survey 1 targeted HCPs providing specialist MND care. Survey 2 targeted HCPs working in respiratory/ventilation services and community teams. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.ResultsResponses from 55 HCPs providing specialist MND care who worked at 21 MND care centres and networks and 13 Scotland Health Boards were analysed from Survey 1. Responses from 85 HCPs from respiratory/ventilation services and 73 HCPs from community teams, representing 97 services, were analysed from Survey 2. Significant differences in practice were identified at each stage of the respiratory care pathway as well as evidence of the need for improvement. This included when patients were referred to respiratory services, the time taken waiting to commence NIV, the availability of sufficient NIV equipment and provision of services, particularly out of hours.ConclusionWe have highlighted significant disparity in MND respiratory care practices. Increased awareness of the factors that influence NIV success and the performance of individuals and services is important for optimal practice.

Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats and, potentially, to local extinctions. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities and surrounding landscapes. Using a dataset with site-level occurrence and trait data of 5302 species from six terrestrial fauna taxonomic groups across 379 cities on 6 continents, we show that urbanisation produces taxon-specific changes in trait composition, with traits related to reproductive strategy consistently showing the strongest response. The effect of urbanisation on community trait composition is strongest at the largest spatial scale considered, and more closely linked to landscape composition (% urban) than arrangement (aggregation), although latitude and climatic variables remain a stronger influence. This study did not find evidence in support of a global urban taxa syndrome, but instead we suggest that there are four general urban trait syndromes, with resources associated with reproduction and diet likely to be driving patterns in traits associated with mobility and body size. Functional diversity measures showed a wide range of responses, leading to a shift in trait space that is most likely driven by the distribution and abundance of critical resources, and the urban trait syndrome displayed by individual species within a community. Further research is required to understand the interactions between the four general urban trait syndromes, resource distribution and abundance and changes in functional diversity of taxa at different spatial and temporal scales. Maximising opportunities to support species within taxa groups with different urban trait syndromes should be pivotal in conservation and management programmes within and among cities. This will reduce the likelihood of biotic homogenisation at the taxa level, and helps ensure that urban environments have the ecological capacity to respond to challenges such as climate change, further habitat fragmentation and loss, and other disruptions. These actions are critical if we are to reframe the role of cities in global biodiversity loss.

1. Genetic diversity is one of the three main levels of biodiversity recognised in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Fundamental for species adaptation to environmental change, genetic diversity is nonetheless under-reported within global and national indicators. When it is reported, the focus is often narrow and confined to domesticated or other commercial species. 2. Several approaches have recently been developed to address this shortfall in reporting on genetic diversity of wild species. While multiplicity of approaches is helpful in any development process, it can also lead to confusion among policy makers and heighten a perception that conservation genetics is too abstract to be of use to organisations and governments. 3. As the developers of five of the different approaches, we have come together to explain how various approaches relate to each other and propose a scorecard, as a unifying reporting mechanism for genetic diversity. 4. Policy implications. We believe the proposed combined approach captures the strengths of its components and is practical for all nations and subnational governments. It is scalable and can be used to evaluate species conservation projects as well as genetic conservation projects., Journal of Applied Ecology, 59 (9), ISSN:0021-8901, ISSN:1365-2664

Genetic diversity among and within populations of all species is necessary for people and nature to survive and thrive in a changing world. Over the past three years, commitments for conserving genetic diversity have become more ambitious and specific under the Convention on Biological Diversity's (CBD) draft post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF). This Perspective article comments on how goals and targets of the GBF have evolved, the improvements that are still needed, lessons learned from this process, and connections between goals and targets and the actions and reporting that will be needed to maintain, protect, manage and monitor genetic diversity. It is possible and necessary that the GBF strives to maintain genetic diversity within and among populations of all species, to restore genetic connectivity, and to develop national genetic conservation strategies, and to report on these using proposed, feasible indicators. ispartof: CONSERVATION GENETICS vol:24 issue:2 pages:181-191 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

Processes of island colonisation have long been of interest to biologists. Colonisation events themselves are rarely observed, but the processes involved may be inferred using genetic approaches. We investigated possible means of island colonisation by common toads (Bufo bufo) in western Scotland (the Isle of Skye and five neighbouring small islands), using evidence derived from nuclear microsatellites and mitochondrial (mt) DNA. Levels of microsatellite allelic richness for populations on Skye were high and comparable to adjacent mainland populations, but lower for populations on small islands. Pairwise measures of genetic distances between populations and a clustering algorithm were both suggestive of frequent gene flow between Skye and the mainland. For small islands the levels of genetic differentiation were higher, implying stronger isolation and no evidence for inbreeding. The distribution of mtDNA haplotypes broadly mirrored the genetic structure revealed by microsatellites. Reconciled with existing palaeoclimatological evidence, since the last glaciation, our findings rule out the possibility that the B. bufo populations stem from glacial refugia, or that recent anthropogenic transfer of toads is responsible for their current distribution. The most parsimonious explanation of our data is that the studied inshore islands have been repeatedly colonised via rafting from the mainland or neighbouring islands. This may give us insights into the processes likely to take place when ice sheets retreat poleward as a result of climate change. It also has implications for the colonisation of both native and invasive non-native species, and hence the biosecurity of island refugia.

Delivering a revolution in evidence use requires a cultural change across society. For a wide range of groups (practitioners, knowledge brokers, organisations, organisational leaders, policy makers, funders, researchers, journal publishers, the wider conservation community, educators, writers, and journalists), options are described to facilitate a change in practice, and a series of downloadable checklists are provided.

Transforming conservation depends on evidence being embedded within decision-making processes. This chapter presents general principles for embedding evidence into a wide range of approaches and processes. These include creating action plans (habitat or species), guidance documents, funding applications, policy, business environmental strategies, and management plans, as well as deciding what to fund, what to report or how to construct models. How well evidence is used in these processes can be evaluated through various processes and indices.

It is a precept of commonsense morality that parents have permissions to be partial toward their own children in various ways: they are permitted to act in a variety of ways that favor the interests of (only) their own children. But how are such permissions to be reconciled with more general principles of justice? In this article, I discuss this question as it arises for one kind of liberal egalitarian theory of justice. Given their robust commitment to an ideal of equality, such theories face prima facie difficulties in accommodating the commonsense permissions of parental partiality. After sketching the contours of the apparent conflict between equality and parental partiality (§2), I survey some of the ways in which some writers have attempted to reconcile equality and parental partiality, and I criticize these reconciliation proposals, which in different ways subordinate a concern for equality to a concern for parental partiality (§3). I then suggest a different direction for reconciliation, which (conversely) subordinates a concern for partiality to a concern for equality (§4). This alternative reconciliation strategy, I argue, deserves to be taken seriously by liberal egalitarians; whether it is the most plausible way to reconcile equality and parental partiality depends on one’s view about the moral weight of people’s interest in parenting.

In chapter 3 of Wild Animal Ethics Johannsen argues for a collective obligation based on beneficence to intervene in nature in order to reduce the suffering of wild animals. In the same chapter he claims that the non-identity problem is merely a “theoretical puzzle” (p.32) which doesn’t affect our reasons for intervention. In this paper I argue that the non-identity problem affects both the strength and the nature of our reasons to intervene. By intervening in nature on a large scale we change which animals come into existence. In doing so, we enable harmful animals to inflict harms on other animals, and we put other animals in harm’s way. The harms that these animals will inflict and endure are foreseeable. Furthermore, since non-human animals aren’t moral agents, harmful animals cannot be morally responsible for their harmful actions. I argue therefore that by causing animals to exist, knowing that they will inflict and suffer harms, we become morally responsible for those harms. By engaging in identity-affecting actions then we take on secondary moral duties towards the animals we have thereby caused to exist, and these secondary moral duties may be extremely demanding, even more so than the initial costs of intervention. Finally, these duties are duties of justice rather than duties of beneficence, and as such are more stringent than purely beneficence-based moral reasons. Furthermore, this conclusion flows naturally from several plausible principles which Johannsen explicitly endorses.

The longer-term effects of COVID-19 on lung physiology remain poorly understood. Here, a new technique, computed cardiopulmonography (CCP), was used to study two COVID-19 cohorts (MCOVID and C-MORE-LP) at both ∼6 and ∼12 mo after infection. CCP is comprised of two components. The first is collection of highly precise, highly time-resolved measurements of gas exchange with a purpose-built molecular flow sensor based around laser absorption spectroscopy. The second component is estimation of physiological parameters by fitting a cardiopulmonary model to the data set. The measurement protocol involved 7 min of breathing air followed by 5 min of breathing pure O2. One hundred seventy-eight participants were studied, with 97 returning for a repeat assessment. One hundred twenty-six arterial blood gas samples were drawn from MCOVID participants. For participants who had required intensive care and/or invasive mechanical ventilation, there was a significant increase in anatomical dead space of ∼30 mL and a significant increase in alveolar-to-arterial Po2 gradient of ∼0.9 kPa relative to control participants. Those who had been hospitalized had reductions in functional residual capacity of ∼15%. Irrespectively of COVID-19 severity, participants who had had COVID-19 demonstrated a modest increase in ventilation inhomogeneity, broadly equivalent to that associated with 15 yr of aging. This study illustrates the capability of CCP to study aspects of lung function not so easily addressed through standard clinical lung function tests. However, without measurements before infection, it is not possible to conclude whether the findings relate to the effects of COVID-19 or whether they constitute risk factors for more serious disease. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study used a novel technique, computed cardiopulmonography, to study the lungs of patients who have had COVID-19. Depending on severity of infection, there were increases in anatomical dead space, reductions in absolute lung volumes, and increases in ventilation inhomogeneity broadly equivalent to those associated with 15 yr of aging. However, without measurements taken before infection, it is unclear whether the changes result from COVID-19 infection or are risk factors for more severe disease.

“Chineseness” is often depicted in public discourses within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as an identity that blurs together varied notions of shared cultural heritage, as well as common descent, within discourses of a unified national identity. This combines what might be called “ethnicity” (as cultural heritage), “race” (as common descent, physical or intrinsic characteristics), and “nation” (as territory and political state) in complex ways. And yet, a standard position within Chinese discourses (and often replicated in non-Chinese scholarship) is that historically informing the present, Chinese notions of “ethnic difference” are based on differences in “culture,” thus precluding “racism.” This characterization in part derives from the narrative that Chinese history was an ongoing process of “sinicization”—namely “backwards,” “barbarian” ethnic groups eagerly assimilated into the “more advanced” Han “civilization,” thus becoming “Chinese.” However, there are numerous scholarly challenges to this narrative as historically inaccurate or overly simplistic, as well as challenges to the positioning of this narrative as not “racist.” The idea that an emphasis on civilization versus barbarism is “cultural” and not “racial” delimits racism to a narrow definition focusing on “biophysical” difference. However, wider scholarship on race and racism highlights that the latter rests on diverse articulations of hierarchical difference; this includes and mobilizes cultural difference as an active part of racist discourses predicated on the acceptance of ideas of the “inferiority” versus “superiority” of peoples, as well as notions of “purity” within discourses of homogeneous imagined communities. Increasingly, “being Chinese” is being conceptualized in PRC official rhetoric as a culturally, and racially, homogeneous identity. That is, not only is Han culture being positioned as emblematic of “Chinese culture” generally but also it is being asserted that all ethnic groups are descended from the Han and are thus genetically bound by “Chinese bloodlines.” Such discourses have repercussions for ethnic minority groups within China—most clearly at the moment for Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities who are positioned as “infected” by “foreign influences,” namely their religion. This is particularly clear in the contemporary sinicization campaign in Xinjiang (XUAR: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), a region in northwest China that has gained increasing international attention due to the government’s use of “re-education” camps in a program it argues is designed to eliminate terrorism. The accompanying sinicization campaign involves a combination of propaganda emphasizing “Chinese socialist characteristics” and “core values” that should be adopted, an emphasis in the media on Uyghurs engaging in Han cultural practices as a demonstration of their loyalty to the state, as well as the removal of many visible signs of Chinese Islamic history and Uyghur culture. The turn toward politically policing culture is hardly new in China; however, the increasing emphasis on racial notions of identity—foregrounding physical appearance, genetics, lineage, and metaphors of “bloodlines”—is an attempt to turn a national identity into a “natural” one, something that raises urgent questions with regard to how China deals with the diversity of its population and the stakes in being, or becoming, “Chinese.”

Biodiversity underlies ecosystem resilience, ecosystem function, sustainable economies, and human well-being. Understanding how biodiversity sustains ecosystems under anthropogenic stressors and global environmental change will require new ways of deriving and applying biodiversity data. A major challenge is that biodiversity data and knowledge are scattered, biased, collected with numerous methods, and stored in inconsistent ways. The Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON) has developed the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) as fundamental metrics to help aggregate, harmonize, and interpret biodiversity observation data from diverse sources. Mapping and analyzing EBVs can help to evaluate how aspects of biodiversity are distributed geographically and how they change over time. EBVs are also intended to serve as inputs and validation to forecast the status and trends of biodiversity, and to support policy and decision making. Here, we assess the feasibility of implementing Genetic Composition EBVs (Genetic EBVs), which are metrics of within-species genetic variation. We review and bring together numerous areas of the field of genetics and evaluate how each contributes to global and regional genetic biodiversity monitoring with respect to theory, sampling logistics, metadata, archiving, data aggregation, modeling, and technological advances. We propose four Genetic EBVs: (i) Genetic Diversity; (ii) Genetic Differentiation; (iii) Inbreeding; and (iv) Effective Population Size (Ne ). We rank Genetic EBVs according to their relevance, sensitivity to change, generalizability, scalability, feasibility and data availability. We outline the workflow for generating genetic data underlying the Genetic EBVs, and review advances and needs in archiving genetic composition data and metadata. We discuss how Genetic EBVs can be operationalized by visualizing EBVs in space and time across species and by forecasting Genetic EBVs beyond current observations using various modeling approaches. Our review then explores challenges of aggregation, standardization, and costs of operationalizing the Genetic EBVs, as well as future directions and opportunities to maximize their uptake globally in research and policy. The collection, annotation, and availability of genetic data has made major advances in the past decade, each of which contributes to the practical and standardized framework for large-scale genetic observation reporting. Rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology present new opportunities, but also challenges for operationalizing Genetic EBVs for biodiversity monitoring regionally and globally. With these advances, genetic composition monitoring is starting to be integrated into global conservation policy, which can help support the foundation of all biodiversity and species' long-term persistence in the face of environmental change. We conclude with a summary of concrete steps for researchers and policy makers for advancing operationalization of Genetic EBVs. The technical and analytical foundations of Genetic EBVs are well developed, and conservation practitioners should anticipate their increasing application as efforts emerge to scale up genetic biodiversity monitoring regionally and globally. ispartof: BIOLOGICAL REVIEWS vol:97 issue:4 pages:1511-1538 ispartof: location:England status: published

Housing reconstruction is considered the backbone of disaster recovery. The increasing losses in housing due to disasters challenge conventional top-down schemes and call for people-centred approaches to acknowledge their agency and self-recovery resources. This paper examines the pathways for housing self-recovery through resident-controlled incremental housing development. This paper focuses on the Villa Verde settlement built in the Chilean city of Constitución, which was severely impacted by the 2010 Chile Earthquake. Villa Verde, designed by the Chilean architecture studio Elemental, is one of the most notable incremental housing projects worldwide that encourage residents to extend their houses within a provided structural framework. This research aims to provide clarity in the much-needed understanding of disaster-affected people’s agency to self-recover, noted by researchers as one of the crucial elements for improving the humanitarian response in the aftermath of disasters. Through capturing the evolution of incremental housing construction, this paper presents multiple complexities resulting from the variety of households’ characteristics and needs in their process of post-disaster housing self-recovery. The resident-controlled process studied evidence that the people’s capacities and dedication to self-recover challenged the established housing framework with extensions beyond the designers’ parameters requiring further evaluation of the long-term implications of self-help constructions.

Current trends in disaster response and management include various stakeholders, including non-government organisations (NGOs), volunteer groups and other humanitarian organisations, working alongside governmental agencies. Together, they are directly involved in reconstruction efforts, with support often extending from the early response to long-term reconstruction. The common goal of reconstruction efforts spanning the last few decades is the ambition to “Build Back Better”. More recently, there have been efforts to expand the scope of the reconstruction efforts to “Build Back Safer” and to raise awareness about the quality and safety of the final products, such as housing and infrastructure. Disaster management studies rarely address the construction process after disasters, or the working conditions of the builders, and often pay little attention to the health and safety of the extended workforce. This study identifies critical factors affecting workers, volunteers, local communities and other staff working on disaster reconstruction projects through a systematic literature review of academic publications. A total of 35 publications were thematically analysed, reduced from an initial selection of 394 publications selected between 2004 to 2022. The findings from this study highlight the vulnerabilities experienced by workers and the broader community involved in post-disaster reconstruction and acknowledge challenges integrating health and safety concerns into the practice and governance of global humanitarian systems.

Clinically faithful pre-clinical models are essential for screening therapies and studying resistance mechanisms. Historically models have failed to predict response in the clinical setting. Current models seldom incorporate surgical resection, and commonly use young animals whose immune contexture differs from older patients. Here, we have established an orthotopic model, employing the syngeneic, mesenchymal-NFpp10a-cell line, in both young and aged mice. We have characterised the model's response to standard of care resection and temozolomide (TMZ) treatment. We have further studied response to anti-PD1 therapy (adjuvant and neoadjuvant). NFpp10a-Luc2 expressing cells were orthotopically implanted into C57BL/6 mice (aged { > 18months} and young {6-8weeks}) and weekly bioluminescence imaging (BLI) performed to monitor tumour growth. Several therapeutic interventions were assessed to study tumour growth and survival: (1)surgical resection, (2)TMZ, (3)anti-PD1 (4)neoadjuvant anti-PD1. RNAseq, murine microenvironment cell population (mMCP) counter and gene ontology analyses characterised treatment related changed in the TME. We demonstrated survival advantage in aged mice undergoing resection (Resection:33.5 days vs Non-Resection:18 days;p=0.0166). Subsequently, we observed that TMZ and anti-PD1 monotherapy had no impact on NFpp10a-Luc2 growth (TMZ-overall:p=0.9001, and anti-PD1-overall:p = 0.7933) or survival (TMZ-overall:p = 0.3035, anti-PD1-overall:p= 0.6328). Neoadjuvant anti-PD1 treated mice demonstrated no survival advantage compared to IgG control (33-days vs 35-days:p = 0.9429). or BLI signal (p = 0.1703). NFpp10a-Luc2 forms immune-cold TME relative to commonly employed models. mMCP counter analysis demonstrates neoadjuvant anti-PD1 induced influx of CD8+-T cells, B cells, and monocytes into the TME compared to IgG control, and was associated with significantly upregulated CXCR3 chemokine receptor binding pathway on gene ontology analysis (p = 0.0045). Overall, we have, for the first time established and characterised response of the NFpp10a-Luc2-C57BL/6 model to resection, TMZ and anti-PD1 therapies. NFpp10a-Luc2 tumours demonstrate similar therapeutic resistance and TME profile compared to human mesenchymal GBM. The model may therefore be employed in future pre-clinical studies to guide clinical trials in mesenchymal GBM.

While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the predominant imaging modality for glioblastoma (GBM), pre-clinical MRI scanner availability is limited. As pre-clinical CT is more widely available and cost-effective, this study aimed to 1) establish preclinical-GBM CT and CT-radiomic workflows, 2) identify whether CE-CT could detect murine orthotopic GBM tumours on two CT instruments [TRIUMPHX-O-CT; IVISSPECTRUM-CT], 3) assess whether CT-radiomic features could distinguish tumour from normal tissue, and support earlier detection of tumours, 4) verify translation of pre-clinical CT-radiomic pipelines to, and assess pre-clinical CT-features in, clinical CE-CT scans.U87R-Luc2(n=25) and NFpp10a-Luc2(n=10) orthotopic GBM models were established and tumours monitored via bioluminescence imaging (BLI). Concurrently, mice underwent CE-CT (IV-iodine/300mg/mL/50kV-scan). Extracted radiomic features (PyRadiomics) underwent dimensionality reduction (Spearman correlation; >0.85). Remaining features were analysed (Recursive feature elimination (RFE)/RepeatedCV/randomforest) in normal and tumour tissue and across timepoints (TRIUMPHX-O-CT-Wk3vsWk6,Wk6vsWk9/12; IVISSPECTRUM-CT-Wk6vsWk9/12).CE-CT and radiomic pipelines were successfully established for orthotopic GBM models, using both CT-systems. On visual assessment of images, BLI was significantly more sensitive, with tumours detectable at Wk1 (BLI) vs Wk9 (CE-CT). However, RFE analysis identified CT-radiomic features (first_order&glcm) which differentiated tumour from normal tissue (TRIUMPHX-O-CT). A subsequent feature set (first_order,glcm,gldm&glzm) were identified (TRIUMPHX-O-CT/IVISSPECTRUM-CT), detecting tumours earlier (Wk3&Wk6) than possible by visual assessment of CTs. Preclinical radiomic methods were successfully applied to exploratory clinical CE-CT scans(n=10). Here, several preclinical CT-features (e.g. Zone_Entropy) showed increased intensity in tumour regions. Overall experimental BLI is the most sensitive method for pre-clinical intracranial tumour detection. However, analysis of clinically relevant CT-radiomic features may facilitate tumour identification and earlier tumour detection (Wk3/Wk6-TRIUMPHX-O-CT/Wk6-IVISSPECTRUM-CT) than possible by visual assessment of CT (Wk9). Clinically relevant CT-derived radiomic features may therefore support intracranial rodent tumour assessment. Importantly, preclinical radiomic methods successfully translate to clinical CT-radiomic analysis. Parallel trends in tumour-specific feature intensities across pre-clinical and clinical scans suggest species conservation of features.