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Protist diversity studies are frequently conducted using DNA metabarcoding methods. Currently, most studies have utilized short read sequences to assess protist diversity. One limitation of using short read sequences is the low resolution of the markers. For better taxonomic resolution longer sequences of the 18S rDNA are required because the full‐length has both conserved and hypervariable regions. In this study, a new primer pair combination was used to amplify the full‐length 18S rDNA and its efficacy was validated with a test community and then validated with field samples. Full‐length sequences obtained with the Nanopore MinION for protist diversity from field samples were compared with Illumina MiSeq V4 and V8‐V9 short reads. Sequences generated from the high‐throughput sequencers are Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs). Metabarcoding results show high congruency among the long reads and short reads in taxonomic annotation at the major taxonomic group level; however, not all taxa could be successfully detected from sequences. Based on the criteria of ≥95% similarity and ≥1000 bp query length, 298 genera were identified by all markers in the field samples, 250 (84%) were detected by 18S, while only 226 (76%) by V4 and 213 (71%) by V8‐V9. Of the total 85 dinoflagellate genera observed, 19 genera were not defined by 18S dinoflagellate ASVs compared to only three among the total 52 diatom genera. The discrepancy in this resolution is due to the lack of taxonomically available 18S reference sequences in particular for dinoflagellates. Overall, this preliminary investigation demonstrates that application of the full‐length 18S rDNA approach can be successful in field studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protist diversity studies are frequently conducted using DNA metabarcoding methods. Currently, most studies have utilized short read sequences to assess protist diversity. One limitation of using short read sequences is the low resolution of the markers. For better taxonomic resolution longer sequences of the 18S rDNA are required because the full‐length has both conserved and hypervariable regions. In this study, a new primer pair combination was used to amplify the full‐length 18S rDNA and its efficacy was validated with a test community and then validated with field samples. Full‐length sequences obtained with the Nanopore MinION for protist diversity from field samples were compared with Illumina MiSeq V4 and V8‐V9 short reads. Sequences generated from the high‐throughput sequencers are Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs). Metabarcoding results show high congruency among the long reads and short reads in taxonomic annotation at the major taxonomic group level; however, not all taxa could be successfully detected from sequences. Based on the criteria of ≥95% similarity and ≥1000 bp query length, 298 genera were identified by all markers in the field samples, 250 (84%) were detected by 18S, while only 226 (76%) by V4 and 213 (71%) by V8‐V9. Of the total 85 dinoflagellate genera observed, 19 genera were not defined by 18S dinoflagellate ASVs compared to only three among the total 52 diatom genera. The discrepancy in this resolution is due to the lack of taxonomically available 18S reference sequences in particular for dinoflagellates. Overall, this preliminary investigation demonstrates that application of the full‐length 18S rDNA approach can be successful in field studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity conservation is at a crossroads. A number of trends are converging with the potential to transform our understanding of nature and how we conserve it. First, conservation policy makers are advocating increasingly ambitious global biodiversity targets, such as the agreement to protect 30% of terrestrial, inland water, and of coast and marine areas by 2030 made at the December 2022 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Second, recognizing that governments do not have sufficient resources to reach these ambitious targets, they are turning to private finance and innovative financing mechanisms for help. Third, technological advances are enabling new ways of surveilling people, species, and ecosystems, measuring conservation outcomes, and targeting funding. Finally, long-standing concerns over the alienation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities from land and resources, and the colonial legacy of conservation, have been amplified by widespread contemporary awareness of racism more generally. Nascent critiques of conservation are incorporating but also moving beyond calls for participatory or rights-based approaches to conservation to push for the complete decolonization of conservation, alternatives to capitalist approaches to conservation, and other radical reforms. Collectively, these shifts are both reinforcing traditional conservation practice and power relationships and opening up space to expand understandings of collaborative management, environmental caretaking, and sustainable livelihoods and dramatically reform conservation. In this article, we draw on decades of research studying conservation governance in sites that range from villages to international meetings in order to examine this critical historical moment in conservation politics. We argue that conservation is at an ontological and epistemic moment during which the meaning of biodiversity, how to know it, how to conserve it, and who should conserve it is being fundamentally transformed. As transnational movements seek to transform our political economic system and to decolonize conservation, the consolidation of elite power among actors in finance, technology, governments, and big nongovernmental organizations abstracts conservation from localized contexts, drawing attention away from ensuring effective conservation on the ground and failing to challenge the root causes of biodiversity loss. Thus, continued vigilance is needed to keep equity, rights, justice, and livelihoods at the forefront of conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incivilities are pervasive among workers in healthcare institutions. Previously identified effects include deterioration of employee physical and mental health, absenteeism, burnout, and turnover, as well as reduced patient safety and quality of care. This study documented factors related to organizational civility at an academic health sciences center (AHSC) as the basis for future intervention work. We used a cross-sectional research design to conduct an online survey at four of five campuses of an AHSC. Using the Organizational Civility Scale (OCS), we assessed differences across gender, race (White and non-White) and job type (faculty or staff) in the eleven subscales (frequency of incivility, perceptions of organizational climate, existence of civility resources, importance of civility resources, feelings about current employment, employee satisfaction, sources of stress, coping strategies, overall levels of stress/coping ability, and overall civility rating). Significant gender differences were found in six of the eleven subscales: perception of organizational climate (p <.001), existence of civility resources (p =.001), importance of civility resources (p <.001), frequency of incivilities (p <.001), employee satisfaction (p =.002), and overall civility rating (p =.007). Significant differences between respondents by self-identified race were found only in one subscale: existence of civility resources (p =.048). Significant differences were found between faculty and staff in four subscales: perception of organizational climate (p =.001), importance of civility resources (p =.02), employee satisfaction (p =.01), and overall levels of stress (p =.03). Results suggest that gender and employment type differences exist in the perception of organizational climate at the academic health center, while significant racial differences only occurred in reference to reported existence of civility resources. Attention to these differences should be incorporated into the development of programs to address the problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An IOC-UNESCO Working Group was established to investigate climate change and global trends of phytoplankton in the ocean (TrendsPO; https://trendspo.net/). As such, phytoplankton are important drivers of ecosystem resilience and sustainability, and their community activity and composition are directly impacted by the pressures brought on by human population growth and by global climate change. Keywords: phytoplankton; time series; long term EN phytoplankton time series long term 144 145 2 02/07/23 20230101 NES 230101 Phytoplankton form the base of the ocean food webs. [Extracted from the article]

Mammals have independently evolved a wide variety of morphological adaptations for use in avoiding death by predation, including spines, quills, dermal plates, and noxious sprays. Although these traits appear to protect their bearer from predatory attack, it is less obvious why some species evolved them and others have not. We investigated the ecological correlates favoring the evolution of specialized defenses in mammals, focusing on conspicuousness to predators due to body size and openness of habitat. We scored species for the degree to which they are protected by spines, quills, dermal plating, and sprays and used phylogenetic comparative analyses to study the morphological and ecological factors that may favor their evolution. We show that medium-sized insectivorous mammals (∼800 g to 9 kg) that live in open habitats are more likely to possess one of these defensive traits to reduce predation. Smaller species (<200 g) and those in closed habitats can typically rely on crypsis to avoid predators, and larger species (>10 kg) are less susceptible to predation by most small- to medium-sized predators. We discuss how diet, metabolic rate, and defensive strategy evolve in concert to allow species to exploit this ecomorphological 'danger zone' niche. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased interest in oceans is leading to new and renewed global governance efforts directed toward ocean issues in areas of food production, biodiversity conservation, industrialization, global environmental change, and pollution. Global oceans governance efforts face challenges and opportunities related to the nature of oceans and to actors involved in, the scale of, and knowledge informing their governance. We review these topics generally and in relation to nine new and emerging issues: small-scale fisheries (SSFs), aquaculture, biodiversity conservation on the high seas, large marine protected areas (LMPAs), tuna fisheries, deep-sea mining, ocean acidification (OA), blue carbon (BC), and plastics pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A taxonomic treatment of the Xyridaceae in the Viruá National Park is presented. Located in Roraima state, northern Brazil, the park comprises a mosaic of lowland vegetation types, including forests, wetlands, and one of the largest continuous areas of campinarana in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Xyridaceae are represented in the park by 20 species in the genera Abolboda and Xyris. Although the four species of Abolboda are widespread, most of the Xyris species (75%) are endemic to Amazonian open vegetation formations, such as campinaranas and savannas. This study was based on field, herbarium, and scanning electron microscopy research. The taxonomic treatment includes identification keys to the genera and species, morphological descriptions, SEM images of seeds for Xyris species, iconography, geographic distribution and comments on the ecology of the species. The poorly known Xyris connosepala is synonymized in Xyris guianensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blooms of Dinophysis ovum and Mesodinium spp. have been observed in the Gulf of Mexico since 2007 using the Imaging FlowCytobot technology. Bloom dynamics of these two organisms in conjunction with ancillary environmental data for a 5-year period were analyzed to identify the conditions necessary for bloom initiation or presence with the goal of predicting future blooms of D. ovum. Using time-series analysis, we observed a positive time-lagged correlation between the two organisms in each year when both were present, which suggests that the presence of Mesodinium may be useful as a leading indicator for a D. ovum bloom. Although in some cases D. ovum and Mesodinium co-occurred, no strong predator–prey relationship was observed. We identified a narrow range of temperature and salinity that could be necessary for bloom initiation of D. ovum and Mesodinium in the Gulf of Mexico. Analysis of images over the time series revealed a wide range in the size of Mesodinium cells, which suggests that species other than M. rubrum may be present in the Gulf of Mexico. Based on the occurrence of a D. ovum bloom preceded by low abundances of Mesodinium, we suggest that D. ovum is able to utilize ciliates other than M. rubrum as prey. Our observations indicate that environmental conditions, as well as Mesodinium abundance and species composition, can affect initiation, presence or abundance of D. ovum and thus may help in the prediction of future blooms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Following the passage of a tropical cyclone (TC) the changes in temperature, salinity, nutrient concentration, water clarity, pigments and phytoplankton taxa were assessed at 42 stations from eight sites ranging from the open ocean, through the coastal zone and into estuaries. The impacts of the TC were estimated relative to the long-term average (LTA) conditions as well as before and after the TC. Over all sites the most consistent environmental impacts associated with TCs were an average 41% increase in turbidity, a 13% decline in salinity and a 2% decline in temperature relative to the LTA. In the open ocean, the nutrient concentrations, cyanobacteria and picoeukaryote abundances increased at depths between 100 and 150 m for up to 3 months following a TC. While at the riverine end of coastal estuaries, the predominate short-term response was a strong decline in salinity and phytoplankton suggesting these impacts were initially dominated by advection. The more intermediate coastal water-bodies generally experienced declines in salinity, significant reductions in water clarity, plus significant increases in nutrient concentrations and phytoplankton abundance. These intermediate waters typically developed dinoflagellate, diatom or cryptophyte blooms that elevated phytoplankton biomass for 1–3 months following a TC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Premise of the study: The term colleter is applied to trichomes or emergences positioned close to developing vegetative and floral meristems that secrete a sticky, mucilaginous, and/or lipophilic exudate. Several ecological functions are attributed to these glands, but none are exclusive to colleters. Patterns of morphology and distribution of colleters may be valuable for sys-tematics and phylogeny, especially concerning problematic and large groups such as the subtribe Pleurothallidinae, and are also essential to understand the evolution of these glands in Orchidaceae as a whole. Methods: We used scanning electron and light microscopy to examine the structure and occurrence of trichomes on bracts and sepals and in the invaginations of the external ovary wall (IEOW) in flowers in several developmental stages from species in seven genera. Key results: The exudate was composed of polysaccharides, lipophilic, and phenolic compounds. Colleters were secretory only during the development of floral organs, except for the glands in the IEOW that were also active in flowers at anthesis. After the secretory phase, fungal hyphae were found penetrating senescent trichomes. Conclusions: Trichome-like colleters seem to be a widespread character in Epidendroideae, and digitiform colleters are possibly the common type in this subfamily. Mucilage from IEOW colleters may aid in the establishment of symbiotic fungi necessary for seed germination. The presence of colleters in the IEOW may be a case of homeoheterotopy, in which extrafloral nectaries that produce simple sugar-based secretions (as in other orchid species) have changed to glands that produce secretions with complex polysaccharides, as in Pleurothallidinae. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we examine oceans outcomes from the Third United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (or Rio+20) in relation to how ocean problems and solutions were defined and by whom. We highlight the extent to which problem and solution definitions were shared among participants, in relation to three specific issues on the agenda at Rio+20: conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, small-scale fisheries, and ocean acidification. We find that discussions about each of these issues reflect three challenges recognized as complicating oceans management: mismatches between ecological and governance scale, homogeneity among interest groups advocating for ocean conservation, and increased interest in both protection and exploitation of ocean resources. Overall, we found little evidence of constructive dialogue at Rio+20, where participants focused on advancing predefined positions, and we consider the implications of our analysis for ultimately addressing our three focal issues and for oceans management more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews several books including "That Case of the Green Turtle: An Uncensored History of a Conservation Icon," by A. Rieser, "The Man Who Saved Sea Turtles: Archie Carr and the Origins of Conservation Biology," by F.R. Davis and "Sea Turtles of the Eastern Pacific: Advances in Research and Conservation," edited by J.A. Seminoff and B.P. Wallace.

Despite its necessity, integration of natural and social sciences to inform conservation efforts has been difficult. We examined the views of 63 scientists and practitioners involved in marine management in Mexico's Gulf of California, the central California coast, and the western Pacific on the challenges associated with integrating social science into research efforts that support ecosystem-based management (EBM) in marine systems. We used a semistructured interview format. Questions focused on how EBM was developed for these sites and how contextual factors affected its development and outcomes. Many of the traditional challenges linked with interdisciplinary research were present in the EBM projects we studied. However, a number of contextual elements affected how mandates to include social science were interpreted and implemented as well as how easily challenges could be addressed. For example, a common challenge is that conservation organizations are often dominated by natural scientists, but for some projects it was easier to address this imbalance than for others. We also found that the management and institutional histories that came before EBM in specific cases were important features of local context. Because challenges differed among cases, we believe resolving challenges to interdisciplinary research should be context specific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine a volunteer-based sea turtle management project run by the state of North Carolina, USA, to explore collaborative conservation and citizen science. Through this case study, we unpack assumptions from the volunteerism literature and apply theories of co-production to understand how citizens evaluate science and produce knowledge while conducting wildlife monitoring. We demonstrate that the project maintains a healthy give and take between the state and the volunteers as they work together to manage endangered sea turtles. When tensions do emerge over specific issues such as nest relocation, volunteers engage with scientific debates and apply their knowledge gained through the project to push their priorities. While volunteers understand the state’s position on conservation science, they counter with evidence from scientific literature and locally situated observations informed by an alternative view of human–environment relationships and specific goals for the project. Overall, we find that there is little evidence to support the notion that knowledge is ‘co-produced’ in the project. Instead, the combination of volunteer control over the local spaces of conservation and the state’s need for volunteer labor results in the co-production of conservation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increase in frequency of harmful algal blooms (HABs) worldwide, a better understanding of the mechanisms that influence toxin production is needed. Karenia brevis, the major HAB dinoflagellate in the Gulf of Mexico, produces potent neurotoxins, known as brevetoxins. Human health is directly impacted by blooms of K. brevis through consumption of shellfish contaminated by accumulated brevetoxins (neurotoxic shellfish poisoning) or from aerosolized brevetoxins in sea spray (reduced respiratory function); however, the reason for brevetoxin production has remained a mystery. Here we show that brevetoxin production increased dramatically in response to osmotic stress in three of the four K. brevis clones examined. By rapidly changing salinity to simulate a shift from oceanic conditions to a decreased salinity typical of coastal conditions, brevetoxin production was triggered. As a result, brevetoxin cell quota increased by >14-fold, while growth rate remained unchanged. Live images of K. brevis cells were also examined to assess changes in cell volume. In the K. brevis Wilson clone, cells responded quickly to hypoosmotic stress by increasing their brevetoxin cell quota from ~10 to 160 pg of brevetoxin per cell, while cell volume remained stable. In contrast, the K. brevis SP1 clone, which has a consistently low brevetoxin cell quota (<1 pg per cell), was unable to balance the hypoosmotic stress, and although brevetoxin production remained low, average cell volume increased. Our findings close a critical gap in knowledge regarding mechanisms for toxin production in K. brevis by providing an explanation for toxin production in this harmful dinoflagellate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine historical ecology provides historic insights into past ocean ecosystems that are crucial to effectively confronting the declining health and resilience in marine ecosystems. A more 'peopled' approach to marine historical ecology is necessary, given the heightened emphasis on human dimensions in marine management. This study examined the historical ecology of Hawaiian coral reef ecosystems through oral histories of diverse ocean experts, representing six traditional, local, and scientific knowledge systems. Based on 61 in-depth interviews with these ocean experts, historical trends, abundance, and distribution over 80 years and a 50-mile region for 271 species emerged. Analyzing trends by ecological guild, e.g., herbivores, proved inappropriate to these data; rather, based on qualitative analyses, five distinct trends encompassing nearly all species emerged in what we term "social-ecological guilds." Ocean expert's observations of change were surprisingly consistent, regardless of their knowledge system, whereas perceptions of change varied widely. The historical picture was far broader and richer when the contributions of six knowledge systems were incorporated, compared to that of any one alone. Social-ecological guilds also matter critically from a management perspective, because understanding how experts from a multiplicity of perspectives observe, interpret, and respond to ecological change can help managers anticipate responses to management activities and perhaps to design better management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1995, Daniel Pauly identified a "shifting baselines syndrome" (SBS). Pauly was concerned that scientists measure ecosystem change against their personal recollections of the past and, based on this decidedly short-term view, mismanage fish stocks because they tolerate gradual and incremental elimination of species and set inappropriate recovery goals. As a concept, SBS is simple to grasp and its logic is compelling. Much current work in marine historical ecology is rationalized in part as a means of combating SBS, and the term has also resonated outside of the academy with environmental advocacy groups. Although we recognize both conceptual and operational merit in SBS, we believe that the ultimate impact of SBS on ocean management will be limited by some underlying and interrelated problematic assumptions about ecology and human-environment relations, and the prescriptions that these assumptions support. In this paper, we trace both assumptions and prescriptions through key works in the SBS literature and interrogate them via ecological and social science theory and research. We argue that an expanded discussion of SBS is needed, one that engages a broader range of social scientists, ecologists, and resource users, and that explicitly recognizes the value judgments inherent in deciding both what past ecosystems looked like and whether or not and how we might reconstruct them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much has been written in recent years regarding whether and to what extent scientists should engage in the policy process, and the focus has been primarily on the issue of advocacy. Despite extensive theoretical discussions, little has been done to study attitudes toward and consequences of such advocacy in particular cases. We assessed attitudes toward science and policy advocacy in the case of marine protected areas (MPAs) on the basis of a survey of delegates at the First International Marine Protected Areas Congress. Delegates were all members of the international marine conservation community and represented academic, government, and nongovernmental organizations. A majority of respondents believed science is objective but only a minority believed that values can be eliminated from science. Respondents showed only partial support of positivist principles of science. Almost all respondents supported scientists being integrated into MPA policy making, whereas half of the respondents agreed that scientists should actively advocate for particular MPA policies. Scientists with a positivist view of science supported a minimal role for scientists in policy, whereas government staff with positivist beliefs supported an advocacy or decision-making role for scientists. Policy-making processes for MPAs need to account for these divergent attitudes toward science and advocacy if science-driven and participatory approaches are to be reconciled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines small-scale fish vending in a southern African floodplain from two perspectives: as a link between natural resource use and consumption, and as a livelihood in itself. We used a combination of observation, surveys and semistructured interviews in a market in Katima Mulilo, Namibia, to determine sources of fish, preferences and constraints to vending, average investment and profit, as well different routes into fish vending and perceptions regarding vending. Most vendors come from fishing households, but their stock is often an accumulation of purchases from other fishers. There is little evidence of formal arrangements between fishers and vendors, yet most adapt to the highly variable natural and social environments of the region. Although all vendors ranked selling fish as their most important livelihood activity, a wide range of investment and profit exists among individuals. Our findings indicate that fisheries management proposed for the area must be developed with a careful understanding of how changes in access and use will affect vending livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the recent convergence of community-based and transboundary natural resource management in Africa. We suggest that both approaches have potential application to common-pool resources such as floodplain fisheries. However, a merging of transboundary and community-based management may reinforce oversimplifications about heterogeneity in resources, users, and institutions. A scalar mismatch between the ecosystem of concern in transboundary management and local resources of concern in community-based management, as well as different colonial and post-colonial histories contribute to this heterogeneity. We describe a fishery shared by Namibia and Zambia in terms of hybrid fisheries management. We examine settlement patterns, fishermen characteristics, sources of conflict, and perceptions regarding present and potential forms of fisheries management in the area. We also consider the implications that initiatives to manage resources on the local and ecosystem scale have for these fishing livelihoods. Our findings indicate that important social factors, such as the unequal distribution of population and fishing effort, as well as mixed opinions regarding present and future responsibility for fisheries management will complicate attempts to implement a hybrid community-transboundary management initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to a recent and growing body of literature exploring the nature of fieldwork in human geography. Specifically, we critically examine the role of gatekeepers in providing access to "the field," based on existing conceptualizations of gatekeepers in the literature and on our own experiences with gatekeepers. We argue that the concept of gatekeepers has been oversimplified, in that relationships between researchers and gatekeepers are often assumed to be unidirectional--with gatekeepers controlling or providing access by researchers--and predominantly static in form and time. Although we accept the necessity and advantages of working through gatekeepers, our experiences suggest that relationships with them are highly complex and evolve over time, with sometimes unexpected implications for research. In gathering and analyzing data, researchers become gatekeepers themselves, what we are calling "keymasters." Reconceptualizing the gatekeeper-researcher relationship will contribute to ongoing efforts to more fully understand field-workers as undertaking a practice inherently political, personal, and linked to the production of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1↵3),(1↵4)-β-Glucans had previously been detected in nonlignified cell wall preparations of only the Poaceae and five other families in the graminoid clade of the Poales (s.l.). Cell walls of vegetative organs of 12 species in nine families of the Poales (s.l.) were examined by immunogold labeling using a monoclonal antibody to (1↵3),(1↵4)-β-glucans. Three types of wall-labeling patterns were identified depending on the density of labeling of the nonlignified walls of epidermal and parenchyma cells and the lignified walls of sclerenchyma fibers and xylem tracheary elements: type 1 in Poaceae and Flagellariaceae, type 2 in Restionaceae and Xyridaceae, and type 3 in Cyperaceae and Juncaceae. Type 1 had the heaviest labeling of nonlignified walls and type 2 the heaviest labeling of lignified walls. Type 3 had the least wall labeling, with only very light labeling of nonlignified and lignified walls. No labeling was found over walls of Typhaceae, Sparganiaceae, or Bromeliaceae. The results are discussed in relation to Poales phylogeny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on some practical and philosophical obstacles to interdisciplinary research and makes some suggestions for overcoming them. Interdisciplinary environmental research is constrained by the newness of related journals and their inferior reputations compared with those of well-respected discipline-based journals. To overcome the barriers of interdisciplinary research, biologists initiating interdisciplinary collaborations should ensure that the interdisciplinary component is pursued form the outset. Social scientists from appropriate disciplines and in appropriate numbers should play a key role in project conceptualization and grant writing.

This study examined the relationship between patient and partner ratings of self-efficacy for symptom control and quality of life (QOL) among 40 African American prostate cancer survivors and their intimate partners. Data analyses revealed that cancer survivors who had rated their self-efficacy for symptom control higher reported better QOL related to urinary, bowel, and hormonal symptoms and better general health QOL (i.e., better physical functioning and better mental health). Data analyses also revealed that partners who rated their self-efficacy for helping the patient manage symptoms as higher reported better QOL (i.e., less negative mood and less caregiver strain). Finally, exploratory analyses indicated that higher self-efficacy in patients was associated with less anxiety and caregiver strain in partners, and higher self-efficacy in partners was associated with better adjustment to bowel and hormonal symptoms and better mental health in patients. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed and future directions for research on self-efficacy in African American prostate cancer survivors are identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper traces the evolution as well as key elements, and provides examples of implementation of participatory development and community-based conservation, two concepts that resemble distant cousins in the intersecting worlds of development assistance and environmental conservation. The paper examines the connections between the concepts, the implications of participatory development for community-based conservation, and the reasons for the differences in their conceptualization and implementation. The paper is based on a review of the literature in both fields and on the authors' research and experience with participatory development and community-based conservation. Several keys to understanding the disconnection between the concepts emerge; intellectual and pragmatic origins of and impetus for the concepts, the expertise and interests of their promoters, and the differing emphasis on participation as means versus end. Results may inform our understandings of why many participatory approaches to conservation have failed to achieve meaningful participation in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]