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Proponents of decentralized forest governance make a compelling case that community forest enterprises (CFEs) can aid in sustainable and equitable utilization of forest resources. The effectiveness of CFEs is thus dependent on their ability to balance social, environmental, and financial performance. In this paper, we examine the relationship between a commonly recommended differentiation strategy and CFE effectiveness. Using data obtained through a survey administered on 51 CFEs located in the Cascadia region (British Columbia province of Canada; and Oregon and Washington states of the United States), we find that CFEs pursuing a differentiation strategy are able to balance social, environmental, and financial objectives. Further, recognizing that all CFEs cannot pursue a differentiation strategy, and some may not even have a defined strategic orientation, the paper compares social, environmental, and financial performance of CFEs pursuing a differentiation strategy, a hybrid strategy (a combination of differentiation and cost leadership strategy), and no defined strategy. This analysis reveals that CFEs pursuing a hybrid strategy deliver better financial performance than those with no defined strategy but are similar to those pursuing a differentiation strategy. Key words: community forest enterprises, business strategy, competitiveness, cost leadership, differentiation, sustainability, social enterprises. Les partisans de la gouvernance forestiere decentralisee presented des arguments convaincants a l'effet que les entreprises forestieres communautaires (EFC) puissent contribuer a l'utilisation durable et equitable des ressources forestieres. L'efficacite des EFC depend donc de leur capacite a equilibrer la performance sociale, environnementale et financiere. Dans cet article, nous etudions la relation entre une strategie de differentiation couramment recommandee et l'efficacite d'une EFC. A l'aide de donnees obtenues grace a une enquete menee aupres de 51 EFC situees dans la region de Cascadia qui comprend la province de la Colombie-Britannique au Canada et les Etats de l'Oregon et de Washington aux Etats-Unis, nous constatons que les EFC qui adoptent une strategie de differentiation sont en mesure d'equilibrer les objectifs sociaux, environnementaux et financiers. De plus, tout en reconnaissant que l'ensemble des EFC ne soient pas en mesure d'adopter une strategie de differentiation et que certaines n'aient meme pas defini d'orientations strategiques en ce sens, l'etude compare la performance sociale, environnementale et financiere des EFC qui appliquent une strategie de differenciation, de celles qui ont une strategie hybride (la combinaison de strategies de differentiation et de domination du marche par les couts), et de celles qui n'ont pas de strategie definie. Cette analyse revele que les EFC qui ont opte pour une strategie hybride presented une meilleure performance financiere que celles qui n'ont pas de strategie definie, mais sont similaires a celles qui ont adopte une strategie de differentiation. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : entreprise forestiere communautaire, strategie d'affaire, competitivite, domination du marche par les couts, differenciation, developpement durable, entreprise sociale., 1. Introduction Community forestry is a useful approach to attain sustainable and equitable utilization of forest resources (Agrawal and Chhatre 2006; Erbaugh et al. 2020). Also known as social forestry [...]

Collaborative planning in natural resource management involves a number of non-state actors and different institutions to make decisions that fall under the realm of governance. However, legitimacy, a quality considered necessary in successful governance, has not been thoroughly investigated empirically. This research examines the perceived importance of three different dimensions of legitimacy--representativeness, meaningfulness, and effectiveness--by actors in the Great Bear Rainforest (GBR) decision-making process and the perceived roles of three institutions--shadow networks, bridging organizations, and boundary objects--in relation to the legitimacy of the GBR plan. Based on semi-structured interviews (n = 17), this research examines the perspectives of those involved or otherwise affected by the GBR decisionmaking process on perceived legitimacy in this context. The results illustrate the importance of representing the different participants' interests and values in the final outcome, trustworthy relationships to build accountability and ensure commitments, strategically using representation to ensure a fair and meaningful decision- making process, and using small groups of capable negotiators to ensure that different values and interests are included at the different levels of decisionmaking. By analyzing the roles of shadow networks, bridging organizations, and boundary objects, these observations highlight the importance of not just representation but meaningful engagement, of actors in negotiating processes. Key words: bridging organizations, boundary objects, shadow networks, legitimacy, Great Bear Rainforest. La planification collaborative en amenagement des ressources naturelles inclut un certain nombre d'acteurs non gouvernementaux ainsi que differentes institutions pour prendre des decisions qui relevent de la gouvernance. Cependant, la legitimite, une qualite jugee necessaire pour une gouvernance reussie, n'a pas fait l'objet d'etude empirique approfondie. Cette recherche etudie l'importance percue de trois dimensions de la legitimite, soit la representativite, l'importance et l'efficacite, selon les acteurs impliques dans le processus de decision de la foret pluviale de Great Bear (FPGB) et la perception des roles de trois institutions, soit les reseaux paralleles, les organismes intermediaires et les objets frontieres, par rapport a la legitimite du plan de la FPGB. Sur la base d'entretiens semi-structures (n = 17), cette recherche etudie les perspectives des personnes impliquees, ou encore touchees par le processus decisionnel de la FPGB par rapport a la legitimite percue dans ce contexte. Les resultats demontrent l'importance de representer les interets et les valeurs des differents participants dans le resultat final, des relations de confiance pour renforcer la responsabilite et garantir l'engagement, de l'utilisation strategique de la representation pour assurer un processus de prise de decision juste et significatif, et de l'utilisation de petits groupes de negociateurs competents pour veiller a ce que differentes valeurs et interets soient pris en compte aux differents niveaux de prise de decision. En analysant les roles des reseaux paralleles, des organismes intermediaires et des objets frontieres, les observations soulignent non seulement l'importance de la representation, mais aussi de l'engagement significatif des acteurs dans les processus de negociation. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: organismes intermediaires, objets frontieres, reseaux paralleles, legitimite, foret pluviale de Great Bear., Introduction Over the past two decades, conservation initiatives have been scaled in size in both terrestrial and marine conservation (Zimmerer et al. 2004; Rodary 2016), in part due to goals [...]

Tree seed transfer is critical to effective reforestation programs, and exploring its policy roots provides insights to understand future, and potentially controversial, actions like assisted migration. We offer a historical overview of seed transfer governance in British Columbia, Canada, by applying analytics from the policy change and knowledge co-production literatures. Based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews with key informants, we trace governance attributes to examine how and why policies have changed (or not) over time. We reveal a paradigmatic shift in seed transfer governance, culminating in a climate-based seed transfer system--informed largely by genetic knowledge--that emerged through a policy window opening. In contrast, governance processes remained relatively unchanged in practice, including the disproportionately influential role of the forest industry in policy-making. These insights shed light on the legacies of a government-industry policy coalition that influence underlying seed transfer objectives (i.e., forest productivity), and help to explain the ongoing dominance of particular knowledge forms used to inform policy. We highlight the need for increased contributions from a wider range of expertise, stakeholders, and rights holders in developing seed transfer policies for future forests. Key words: seed transfer, assisted migration, forest policy. Le transfert des semences d'arbre est crucial pour que les programmes de reboisement soient efficaces et l'exploration des origines de cette politique fournit des renseignements pour comprendre les actions futures, et potentiellement controversees, telles que la migration assistee. Nous presentons un survol historique de la gouvernance du transfert des semences en Colombie-Britannique, au Canada, en appliquant l'analytique du changement de la politique et de la co-production des connaissances dans la litterature. Sur la base de l'analyse des documents et d'entrevues semi-structurees avec des informateurs cles, nous retracons les caracteristiques de la gouvernance pour examiner comment et pourquoi les politiques ont change (ou non) avec le temps. Nous decelons un changement de paradigme dans la gouvernance du transfert des semences qui a abouti a un systeme de transfert des semences fonde sur le climat, supporte en grande partie par les connaissances genetiques, qui emerge via une fenetre ouverte sur la politique. Par contre, les processus de gouvernance sont demeures relativement inchanges en pratique, incluant le role disproportionnellement influant de l'industrie forestiere dans l'elaboration de la politique. Ces informations aident a mieux comprendre l'heritage laisse par la politique issue de la coalition entre le gouvernement et l'industrie qui influence les objectifs sous-jacents du transfert des semences (c.-a-d. la productivite de la foret) et contribue a expliquer la dominance des formes particulieres de connaissances utilisees pour soutenir la politique. Nous faisons ressortir la necessite d'une augmentation des contributions provenant d'un eventail plus large d'expertises, d'intervenants et de detenteurs de droits dans l'elaboration des politiques de transfert des semences pour les futures forets. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : transfert des semences, migration assistee, politique forestiere., 1. Introduction Forest policies are changing to meet the challenges of climate change (Williamson et al. 2019). In many jurisdictions, the locus of this change centres on reforestation initiatives and, [...]

In this verification study, we compare and contrast the performance characteristics of chromogenic agar culture, direct polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and broth enrichment followed by culture or PCR for the detection of Candida auris colonization. We find that culture and PCR both offer excellent performance, with broth enrichment offering little performance advantage given its cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Post-acute sequelae of COVID-19, or long COVID, is a condition characterized by persistent COVID-19 symptoms. As long COVID is defined by clinical criteria after an elapsed period, an opportunity for early intervention may aid in future prophylactic approaches; however, at present, the pathobiological mechanisms are multifactorial. By analyzing early virally infected upper respiratory tract tissue prior to eventual clinical diagnosis, it may be possible to identify biomarkers of altered immune response to facilitate future studies and interventions. Methods: This is a sub-group analysis of samples collected from those with confirmed COVID-19. RNA extraction from nasopharyngeal/mid-turbinate samples, sequencing, and bioinformatic analysis were performed to analyze long COVID and non-long COVID cohorts at day 14 post infection. Differences in mean viral load at various timepoints were analyzed as well as serological data. Results: We identified 26 upregulated genes in patients experiencing long COVID. Dysregulated pathways including complement and fibrinolysis pathways and IL-7 upregulation. Additionally, genes involved in neurotransmission were dysregulated, and the long COVID group had a significantly higher viral load and slower viral clearance. Conclusions: Uncovering early gene pathway abnormalities associated with eventual long COVID diagnosis may aid in early identification. We show that, post acute infection, in situ pathogenic deviations in viral response are associated with patients destined to meet consensus long COVID diagnosis that is entirely dependent on clinical factors. These results identify an important biological temporal window in the natural history of COVID-19 infection and long COVID pathogenesis amenable to testing from standard-of-care upper respiratory tract specimens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In 2022, the global dissemination of mpox virus (MPXV) outside endemic regions prompted the expansion of diagnostic testing worldwide. This study assesses the performance characteristics of 5 real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays in detecting MPXV during the 2022 outbreak. Methods Clinical specimens collected from patients across Ontario, Canada, were tested on the following assays: RealStar Orthopoxyvirus PCR and FlexStar Monkeypox virus PCR (Altona Diagnostics), Novaplex MPXV (Seegene), VIASURE Monkeypox virus Real Time PCR Reagents (CerTest Biotec), and a laboratory-developed test. Positive percent agreement (PPA), negative percent agreement (NPA), relative limit of detection (LOD), and precision were evaluated and MPXV lineages were determined using an amplicon-based whole-genome sequencing (WGS) assay. Results Swabs were collected from various anatomic sites (65 positive and 30 negative). All assays demonstrated 100% NPA (95% confidence interval, 88.4%/88.1%–100.0%), with PPA ranging from 92.2% (82.7%–97.4%) to 96.9% (89.3%–99.6%). LOD and precision were comparable across assays, with coefficient of variations <3%. WGS analysis identified 6 lineages, all belonging to subclade IIb. Conclusions The assays exhibited excellent PPA, NPA, LOD, and precision. Ongoing performance monitoring is essential to detect assay escape mutants and ensure universal detection of evolving MPXV strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (1). SARS-CoV-2 has since spread to [approximately equal to]185 countries and infected [approximately equal to]6 million [...]

A qualitative research project was conducted to evaluate the suitability of e-learning as a means of delivering training to workplace learners in the South African furniture manufacturing sector. Twenty learners participated in a three-month pilot e-learning course and were monitored throughout. While the study was designed primarily to investigate the effectiveness of various pedagogical techniques in a South African context, the importance of providing adequate support to learners emerged as a critical theme during the research project, and this is the subject of this article. Issues included: poor awareness among learners' superiors, IT staff, and financial managers about the e-learning activities that their employees were involved in; sensitivity about costs incurred by employees in connecting to the Internet; a "hands-off" attitude to online training by human resources staff; and a failure in many cases to set aside adequate study hours for employees. Recommendations for companies undertaking training via e-learning include: performing a cost-benefit analysis of face-to-face versus online training; facilitating clear and timely communication within the organization regarding e-learning activities; and establishing a study plan for each learner with the active involvement of learners' supervisors, IT support specialists, human resources staff, and financial managers. (Contains 1 table.)