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Tropical forest degradation emits carbon at a rate of similar to 0.5 Pg.y(-1), reduces biodiversity, and facilitates forest clearance. Understanding degradation drivers and patterns is therefore crucial to managing forests to mitigate climate change and reduce biodiversity loss. Putative patterns of degradation affecting forest stocks, carbon, and biodiversity have variously been described previously, but these have not been quantitatively assessed together or tested systematically. Economic theory predicts a systematic allocation of land to its highest use value in response to distance from centers of demand. We tested this theory to see if forest exploitation would expand through time and space as concentric waves, with each wave targeting lower value products. We used forest data along a transect from 10 to 220 km from Dar es Salaam (DES), Tanzania, collected at two points in time (1991 and 2005). Our predictions were confirmed: high-value logging expanded 9 km.y(-1), and an inner wave of lower value charcoal production 2 km.y(-1). This resource utilization is shown to reduce the public goods of carbon storage and species richness, which significantly increased with each kilometer from DES [carbon, 0.2 Mg.ha(-1); 0.1 species per sample area (0.4 ha)]. Our study suggests that tropical forest degradation can be modeled and predicted, with its attendant loss of some public goods. In sub-Saharan Africa, an area experiencing the highest rate of urban migration worldwide, coupled with a high dependence on forest based resources, predicting the spatiotemporal patterns of degradation can inform policies designed to extract resources without unsustainably reducing carbon storage and biodiversity

In recent years, athletes have been stereotyped as drug abusers, scholastic cheaters, and anti-heroes who are interested in winning at any cost. This stereotype may stem from adverse publicity about a few athletes who have bent the rules in their own selfish interests, others who are interested in maintaining a 'macho' image, the increasing vigilance of the NCAA over college athletic programs, and the passing of Proposition 48, which has tended to highlight the failure of some schools adequately to prepare their students for higher education. What little empirical research has been done targeting or identifying high school athletes has shown this image to be false. This dissertation examines attitudes, life-styles, and drug behavior of college athletes and shows that the common stereotype is contradicted by data on athletes in general. College athletes are as interested in academic success as any other college students. They did, in fact, earn better grades in high school than their peers, and remain equal in scholarly achievement throughout their college careers. Athletes use fewer drugs, and use them less frequently, than other college students. They did not experiment with drugs during grade school, junior high, or early high school years as often as did their classmates, negating the idea that they would use more drugs if not faced with newly instigated mandatory drug testing. An examination of the major theories of deviance has shown that the elements of Hirschi's Social Control Theory, plus elements of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Theory and Weil's Theory of the Natural Mind, can explain most of the differences in drug use between athletes and non-athletes on the college campus. Other theories that were examined here, Strain, Cultural Deviance, and Power-Control, failed to prove useful when trying to explain these differences.

Background: Evidence from midwifery research, policy and guidelines indicates that trust within the midwife-mother relationship is an important element of care provision, yet it is poorly defined as a concept. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the concept of trust within the midwife-mother relationship increasing understanding of the individual’s experience of trust and its meaning to women. Methodology: The Hybrid model for concept analysis was the framework for the study, combining theory and empirical data enabled the researcher to develop a deeper analytic understanding of the phenomenon and the meaning behind how it was experienced. Longitudinal semi-structured interviews were carried out at the beginning of pregnancy, thirty-seven weeks and eight weeks postnatal with a purposive sample of ten women with straightforward pregnancy. Participants were a mix of first time mothers and those having subsequent babies selected from a Health Board that provides midwife-led care. Analysis: Data analysis was conducted using Nvivo 9 software to organise the data into initial themes. Themes were taken back to participants to guide subsequent interviews clarifying their meaning, authenticity and ensuring that the data gathered reflected their personal insight. Findings: “Building blocks” were an analogy identified within the participant interviews which capture the evolving nature of trust. The participants described an initial trust associated with an expectation of assumed competence in the midwife. The core attribute was identified as the relationship between midwife and mother. The concept of trust was interwoven with women’s agency, women expressed a desire to develop a two-way trust that included the midwife trusting the woman. Implications: In order to develop evolved trust, maternity services need to develop systems that allow midwives to establish empathetic, reciprocal relationships and work in partnership with the women.

Background: Evidence from midwifery research, policy and guidelines indicates that trust within the midwife-mother relationship is an important element of care provision, yet it is poorly defined as a concept. Aim: The aim of the study was to explore the concept of trust within the midwife-mother relationship increasing understanding of the individual’s experience of trust and its meaning to women. Methodology: The Hybrid model for concept analysis was the framework for the study, combining theory and empirical data enabled the researcher to develop a deeper analytic understanding of the phenomenon and the meaning behind how it was experienced. Longitudinal semi-structured interviews were carried out at the beginning of pregnancy, thirty-seven weeks and eight weeks postnatal with a purposive sample of ten women with straightforward pregnancy. Participants were a mix of first time mothers and those having subsequent babies selected from a Health Board that provides midwife-led care. Analysis: Data analysis was conducted using Nvivo 9 software to organise the data into initial themes. Themes were taken back to participants to guide subsequent interviews clarifying their meaning, authenticity and ensuring that the data gathered reflected their personal insight. Findings: “Building blocks” were an analogy identified within the participant interviews which capture the evolving nature of trust. The participants described an initial trust associated with an expectation of assumed competence in the midwife. The core attribute was identified as the relationship between midwife and mother. The concept of trust was interwoven with women’s agency, women expressed a desire to develop a two-way trust that included the midwife trusting the woman. Implications: In order to develop evolved trust, maternity services need to develop systems that allow midwives to establish empathetic, reciprocal relationships and work in partnership with the women.

Weaning is associated with a major shift in the microbial community of the intestine, and this instability may make it more acquiescent than the adult microbiota to long-term changes. Modulation achieved through dietary interventions may have potentially beneficial effects on the developing immune system, which is driven primarily by the microbiota. The specific aim of the present study was to determine whether immune development could be modified by dietary supplementation with the human probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis NCC2818 in a tractable model of weaning in infants. Piglets were reared by their mothers before being weaned onto a solid diet supplemented with B. lactis NCC2818, while sibling controls did not receive supplementation. Probiotic supplementation resulted in a reduction in IgA (P<0·0005) and IgM (P<0·009) production by mucosal tissues but had no effect on IgG production (P>0·05). Probiotic-supplemented pigs had more mast cells than unsupplemented littermates (P<0·0001), although numbers in both groups were low. In addition, the supplemented piglets made stronger serum IgG responses to fed and injected antigens (P<0·05). The present findings are consistent with B. lactis NCC2818 reducing intestinal permeability induced by weaning, and suggest that the piglet is a valuable intermediate between rodent models and human infants. The results also strongly suggest that measures of the effect of probiotic supplementation on the immune system need to be interpreted carefully as proxy measures of health benefit. However, they are useful in developing an understanding of the mechanism of action of probiotic strains, an important factor in predicting favourable health outcomes of nutritional intervention