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Understanding the relationship between vegetation and climate is essential for predicting the impact of climate change on broad-scale landscape processes. Utilizing vegetation indicators derived from remotely sensed imagery, we present an approach to forecast shifts in the future distribution of vegetation. Remotely sensed metrics representing cumulative greenness, seasonality, and minimum cover have successfully been linked to species distributions over broad spatial scales. In this paper we developed models between a historical time series of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite imagery from 1987 to 2007 at 1 km spatial resolution with corresponding climate data using regression tree modeling approaches. We then applied these models to three climate change scenarios produced by the Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis (CCCma) to predict and map productivity indices in 2065. Our results indicated that warming may lead to increased cumulative greenness in northern British Columbia and seasonality in vegetation is expected to decrease for higher elevations, while levels of minimum cover increase. The Coast Mountains of the Pacific Maritime region and high elevation edge habitats across British Columbia were forecasted to experience the greatest amount of change. Our approach provides resource managers with information to mitigate and adapt to future habitat dynamics. Forecasting vegetation productivity levels presents a novel approach for understanding the future implications of climate change on broad scale spatial patterns of vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While multifaceted, a chief aim when designating parks and protected areas is to support the preservation of biological diversity, in part, through representing and conserving the full range of landscape conditions observed throughout a representative area. Parks and protected areas are, however, typically developed using a static interpretation of current biodiversity and landscape conditions. The observed and potential climate change impacts to biodiversity have created a need to also contemplate how parks and protected areas will respond to climate change and how these areas will represent the future range of landscape conditions. To assess change in biodiversity, broad-scale ecosystem information can be sourced from indirect remotely sensed indicators. Quantifying biodiversity through indirect indicators allows characterization of inter-relationships between climate and biodiversity. Such characterizations support the assessment of possible implications of climatic change, as the indicators can be generated using modeled forecasts of future climatic conditions. In this paper we model and map impacts of climate change on British Columbia's parks and protected areas by quantifying change in a number of remotely sensed indicators of biodiversity. These indicators are based on the measured amount of incoming solar energy used by vegetation and map the overall annual energy utilization, variability (seasonality), and latent or baseline energy. We compare current conditions represented by parks and protected areas, to those forecasted in the year 2065. Our results indicate that parks and protected areas are forecasted to become more productive and less seasonal, due to increased vegetation productivity in higher elevation environments. While increased vegetation productivity may be beneficial for biodiversity overall, these changes will be particularly problematic for sensitive and specialist species. Future gaps in vegetation conditions protected by parks and protected areas are observed in the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains and the central interior region of British Columbia. Protected areas along the Coast Mountains, Vancouver Island highlands, and the Rocky Mountains show the greatest levels of change in the biodiversity indicators, including decreasing seasonality, with the Mountain Hemlock ecozone most at risk. Examples of large parks that are predicted to experience rapid change in vegetation characteristics include Strathcona, Garabaldi, and Kitlope. Our maps of future spatial distributions of indirect biodiversity indicators fill a gap in information products available for adaptive parks management and provide an opportunity for dialogue and further research on the use of future scenarios of landscape conditions in conservation planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon a case study of education in the small Caribbean state of Saint Lucia (population 154,000) to examine how local knowledge and values can influence the education policy process. It is argued that recent research development initiatives have strengthened the ability of Saint Lucia to mediate international education agendas to suit its distinctive `social ecology' and circumstances as a small state. Saint Lucians, it is argued, are reconceptualizing educational research in ways that better reflect the society's Kwéyòl-majority culture, oral traditions and postcolonial context. The boundaries of educational research are therefore being stretched to incorporate local knowledge and values and multiple modes of meaning-making. The paper argues that increased recognition of the epistemological issues and cultural values that are at the heart of efforts to strengthen research capacity can play a crucial role in democratizing the education policy process and educational research itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research is being increasingly challenged for not contributing effectively enough to the improvement of policy and practice worldwide. Critics call for more relevant, cumulative, accessible and cost-effective studies. This paper examines the implications of this contemporary debate for small states, as they engage with increasingly powerful international development agenda's while dealing with their own distinctive educational needs and priorities. Specific attention is given to different conceptions and traditions of educational research; to the potential of participatory and partnership models; to the process of educational research and evaluation capacity building; to the sociopolitical implications of 'genuine' North-South partnerships; and to the lessons that can be learned by all engaged in educational research from the comparative and international experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The factors shaping host–parasite interactions and epibiont communities in the variable rocky intertidal zone are poorly understood. California mussels, Mytilus californianus , are colonized by endolithic cyanobacterial parasites that erode the host shell. These cyanobacteria become mutualistic under certain abiotic conditions because shell erosion can protect mussels from thermal stress. How parasitic shell erosion affects or is affected by epibiotic microbial communities on mussel shells and the context dependency of these interactions is unknown. We used transplant experiments to characterize assemblages of epibiotic bacteria and endolithic parasites on mussel shells across intertidal elevation gradients. We hypothesized that living mussels, and associated epibacterial communities, could limit colonization and erosion by endolithic cyanobacteria compared with empty mussel shells. We hypothesized that shell erosion would be associated with compositional shifts in the epibacterial community and tidal elevation. We found that living mussels experienced less shell erosion than empty shells, demonstrating potential biotic regulation of endolithic parasites. Increased shell erosion was not associated with a distinct epibacterial community and was decoupled from the relative abundance of putatively endolithic taxa. Our findings suggest that epibacterial community structure is not directly impacted by the dynamic symbiosis between endolithic cyanobacteria and mussels throughout the rocky intertidal zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The articles featured in this Special Issue of Compare are revised or reworked versions of papers presented to the 7th Oxford International Conference on Education and Development in 2003, ‘The state of education: quantity, quality and outcomes’. Every two years, the annual BAICE Conference is nested within the larger Oxford Conference framework so, reflecting this relationship, this is the second set of articles to be published in Compare from this event. This particular collection stems largely from a section of the conference on the theme of ‘Culture, context and the quality of education’, and, more specifically, from an integral Southern and Eastern African Symposium that focussed upon the evaluation of policies, programmes and classrooms. The pertinence of these issues is well reflected in the promotional literature produced in advance of the Oxford Conference itself:At a time when the qualitative challenge to quantitative measures of performance is increasingly respected, it is appropriate to re-examine the ways in which education systems and their achievements are assessed and evaluated. (UKFIET 2003, p.?2)In the September 2004 issue of Compare, the BAICE 2003 Presidential Address (Vulliamy, 2004) and Louisy (2004) drew attention to the global importance of comparative research that is more effectively grounded in the diversity of local cultures and contexts. To cite Louisy, who writes from a distinctive Caribbean vantage point as Governor General of Saint Lucia:While the Caribbean's capacity for facing the dilemmas of difference is thought to give it some comparative advantage, one of the key challenges for its educational policy-makers is how to provide a quality education that is sensitive to the ‘local’ context while remaining responsive to the demands of the ‘global’ market (Louisy, 2004, p.?285).This Special Issue of Compare builds on such thinking and explores the impact of context and culture upon educational change and evaluation in East and Southern Africa. Together, the articles explore global and national policies ‘from the bottom up’ and demonstrate how ‘context matters’ (Crossley with Jarvis, 2001) more than is often realized in policy circles. The collective analysis has theoretical and methodological implications for comparative and international research in education; as well as for relationships between programme evaluations, cross-national studies and educational policy and practice.Interest in comparative and international research in education has increased dramatically over the last decade, spurred on by changing geo-political relations, the intensification of globalization, the information and communications revolution and paradigmatic advances across the social sciences. Moreover, the audience for such work has widened as increasing numbers of policy-makers, planners and practitioners have come to see improved educational performance, across all sectors, as a foundation for enhanced competitiveness in the global knowledge economy (Castells, 1996; Crossley & Watson, 2003). International interest in large-scale, cross-national studies of educational achievement has also contributed to a widened readership for comparative research – and to some critical engagement with the methodologies employed (Goldstein, 2004; Vulliamy, 2004). Here, it is argued that such critical and disciplined reflection is increasingly important, if the potential offered by this resurgence of interest in comparative and international research is to be fully realized – not only in terms of advances in scholarship, but also with regard to improved policy and practice.Much can be learned from systematic and disciplined comparative research but, as comparativists have long pointed out, the complexities involved in productively learning from elsewhere highlight the very real dangers of the uncritical international transfer of educational policies and practices (see for example Sadler, 1900; Phillips & Ochs, 2003). Nevertheless, hard-pressed decision-makers worldwide can still be seen to fall prey to these pitfalls (Noah, 1986), as they engage with the powerful forces of globalization, and seek external guidance for a competitive edge in policy change. International agencies can also play a part in such processes, especially if they seek to share what is often called ‘best practice’ in the light of their own interpretations of comparative experience. In this scenario, comparative education is sorely in need of approaches that return the gaze and ‘provincialize Europe’ (and North America) (Chakrabarty, 2001).In examining the impact of context and culture on policy and practice, each of the articles in this issue addresses the complexities of both the relationship between global and local, variously understood, as well as different modalities of evaluation and what can be learnt from them when considered in comparative perspective. They do so within the specific context of East and Southern Africa, a region of considerable diversity as well as similarity. Articles focus on Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa.This region has experienced dramatic and repeated waves of social and educational change in recent times. Such change is rooted in common histories of colonialism, differences in the conditions under which, when and how these nations achieved independence and recent political and economic developments. But educational change in all has been shaped since 1990 by, amongst other things, a changing balance of regional forces, a growing convergence in international recipes for educational change and national receptivity to such ideas and prescriptions. Educational and social changes are influenced by powerful external and internal players and imperatives as well as the links particular countries have with one another. The political economy of the region is deeply influenced by the nature of and relationships between polities within it. This is a context in which ideas circulate continuously between global, continental, regional, national and local contexts and actors. In these processes, global education reform scripts take hold, are given local meaning and their translation into practice regularly assessed. What all of this has meant in practice for national and local contexts is the focus of the articles collected here.The region also shares with the rest of the continent what Achille Mbembe has called ‘an appearance in discourse’ ‘through a negative interpretation’ as well as ‘less and less’ fieldwork (Mbembe, 2001, pp. 1, 7). One consequence of this blindness, Mbembe writes, is that African politics and economics ‘have been condemned in social theory only as the sign of a lack’ (p.?8). In their own modest way, each of the articles in this edition attempts to address this ‘blindness’, and the manner in which existing approaches actually (dis)enable reflection on local African worlds, and ‘time as lived.’ (p.?8) They highlight complexity, difference and the historicity of contemporary educational policy and practice.The articles in this collection evaluate both educational reform processes as well as the modes of assessment undertaken to evaluate change in practice. In each case, the writer is simultaneously a participant in as well as researcher of the process being assessed. As such, they illustrate the character of much educational research currently conducted in African contexts, which is mainly donor-supported, and often takes the form of evaluation of donor or new national projects. In each case, participation in the processes being analysed provides unique insight into the interface between global, national and local policies and practices and the researchers bring their critical analytical faculties to bear on the interpretation of events and processes. But in each case, too, the form of evaluation is found wanting as a means of understanding local social contexts and educational realities and is supplemented with more detailed theoretical and empirical research that cannot be conducted within the narrow frames of programme or project evaluation. To a large extent, the articles exemplify the broader constraints on educational research in East and Southern Africa. But they also make creative use of the possibilities afforded them within these contexts to raise questions about what constitutes the basis of much educational research in East and Southern African today. As such, as a collection, they suggest the need for more sustained, intellectually-driven research across the region.Higgins and Rwanyange were involved as education advisors for a donor agency involved in the implementation of Education for All. But the article also rests heavily on research that Higgins conducted for her EdD. Ken Harley conducted the evaluations he critiques for donor agencies, and complements these with a deeper analysis of the project contexts. Angeline Barrett presents original research from her PhD which also involved participating in a development project aimed at teachers. Vijay Reddy is the TIMSS Coordinator for South Africa, but finds the frame restrictive for evaluating progress towards broader educational goals and social realities than those specified. Linda Chisholm headed the review and revision processes that she situates within a broader social and analytical context. In each case, the authors acknowledge and probe difficult issues with which they have to grapple in coming to terms with the limitations and possibilities of evaluative work.The articles traverse terrains as diverse as the implementation of Education for All in Uganda; donor-supported teacher development project evaluations in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa; teacher identity in Tanzania; the uses of cross-national achievement studies for national purposes, and national and regional dynamics in curriculum-making. Each presents a distinctive critique from the local perspective of the assumptions underlying the initiatives and different types of evaluation conducted in the region.Higgins and Rwanyange argue for a more self-critical approach amongst donor agencies and ‘the need for a more negotiated agreement on global initiatives’. While acknowledging that much has been achieved in terms of educational reform, their analysis suggests that shortcomings in policy implementation are directly linked to the lack of a sense of ownership of new policies, no matter how well-intentioned, amongst local school communities and teachers. In many ways, this well-informed and timely reflection illustrates how too great a preoccupation with external timescales and agendas, quantitative targets and pressure for accountability can serve to undermine new development modalities that aim to emphasize partnership principles and processes.Harley, by contrast, in a complementary article, is concerned that ‘the linear logic and disregard for unintended consequences’ of the logical framework used by donors for evaluating projects means that actual outcomes and processes can be obscured. This article makes a constructive contribution to work on project evaluation and to the critique of the use of logical frameworks in development planning. Logframe rationality can mask a priori assumptions, unintended outcomes and the political processes involved. Since many funded studies of educational change in sub-Saharan Africa are evaluative in nature, Harley also makes a strong case for such work to be made more widely available and open to greater scrutiny by the research community. Thus it can contribute to broader scholarship in a cumulative way, while informing policy and practice elsewhere. In developing this critique, Harley draws inspiration from Kenyan experience where logframe-driven evaluations have been successfully combined with more qualitative open-ended, in-depth, and context-sensitive case study research. Both Higgins and Rwanyange and Harley's contributions suggest that policy and evaluation provide an inadequate appreciation of local needs and contexts.In tune with Harley's critique, Barrett argues that the evaluation of educational change can benefit greatly from the insights to be gained from context sensitive case studies. Barrett's article is based on recent and detailed doctoral fieldwork carried out in selected schools in the Shinyanga and Coast Regions of Tanzania. This is, however, a more explicitly comparative study, and one that makes a contribution to the literature by comparing theoretically informed insights relating to teacher identity formation in England and Tanzania. This generates an analysis that adds to theoretical work on teacher identity at the same time as it challenges the uncritical international transfer of theoretical constructs (in addition to policy and practice). Barrett's conclusions explore the potential benefits of evaluation studies that are carried out in poor and remote field contexts, and suggests that bridging theoretical analyses with more policy oriented evaluation studies has much to offer the field of comparative and international education.The theme of insufficient sensitivity of existing tools such as the log frame for assessing local educational change is taken up by Vijay Reddy who provides a critical assessment of the extent to which cross-national studies such as TIMSS (the Third International Mathematics and Science Study – recently renamed the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) are able to inform policy and practice at the national level. Recognizing the potential of such studies, despite their limitations, Reddy argues for improvements that would enable better and more helpful use of the information they provide. Reddy asserts that the use by TIMSS of the curriculum as the major organizing concept may obscure other important national priorities, such as poverty reduction and the provision of basic infrastructure. Furthermore, such studies can create pressures towards the harmonization of curricula. Careful to acknowledge the strengths and limitations of such studies, the article nonetheless shows that, in the South African context, cross-national achievement studies tend to reinforce a negative image of performance. If TIMSS is to achieve more, the dialogue between local and global players would need to be much more systematic and comprehensive.Rather than examining the benefits (or otherwise) of a curriculum review and revision process, Chisholm's article explores how the politics of the process gives internationally borrowed ideas (outcomes-based education) their particular meaning and shape in the local context. The South African context is one of nation-building in relation to the post-apartheid state that simultaneously pursues a market-led growth path and a discourse of rights, development and social justice. Chisholm situates this development within the regional context of policy and curriculum borrowing and shows how ideas are not only adopted and adapted at local level in relation to local contextual issues, but are then also pushed back up to the regional level where they may play a different role. She thus develops the theme of intra-regional policy borrowing by local social actors, constantly in contact and interaction with global and regional players. The ambiguities of these processes tend to obscure how power is played out through and around policy review. Her particular contribution explores the dominant social influences in the review and revision of South Africa's Curriculum 2005 at the dawn of the 21st century.Chisholm helpfully compares the roles played by the African National Congress government, teacher unions and university-based intellectuals in shaping the curriculum. Chisholm's finding that universities were as important as teacher unions and the bureaucracy in the process demonstrates strong links between research in education and policy-making in practice. In this case, national actors were able to critically adapt internationally borrowed ideas.Collectively the authors, all of whom are both researchers and practitioners, recognise the need for, and benefits of, sensitivity to context and culture and a critical awareness of the dilemmas of international transfer. Engaging in comparative and international research can heighten such awareness and better equip national policy-makers to deal with multiple interests and policy agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clam gardens are ancient mariculture features developed by Indigenous Peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America that create shallow sloping intertidal shelves where clam productivity is enhanced. We quantify the area of clam habitat created by constructing rock-walled clam gardens terraces in northern Quadra Island, British Columbia, Canada. We combined modelling, high-resolution mapping, beach sampling, and a comprehensive survey of the shoreline to document the location and areal extent of clam habitat in clam gardens today. We divided our analysis into three classes of clam gardens, which differ in substrate and thus the amount of clam habitat created. We found that Indigenous People built clam garden walls on 35% of the shoreline and that about 112,979 m2 of flat beach terrace were created by clam garden construction. Collectively, the three classes of clam gardens increased clam habitat area between 26 and 36%. About 35% of the area of clam habitat in clam gardens was constructed de novo on bedrock shelves and rocky slopes where no clam habitat existed previously. Furthermore, about 12.0% of clam gardens are smaller than 30 m2, reflecting the effort put into creating enhanced food production wherever possible. Our analysis demonstrates that clam management in the form of clam gardens was extensive prior to colonization and that these features still have a significant impact on today's intertidal ecosystems. Clam habitat expansion facilitated by clam garden construction encouraged a sustainable and abundant food source in the past and could do so again in today's changing environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient systems of mariculture were foundations of social-ecological systems of many coastal Indigenous Peoples. However, since such systems either do not leave tangible remains in the archaeological record, and/or are hard to date, we know little about their development and use. Clam gardens, traditional mariculture features located within the intertidal zone along the Northwest Coast of North America, are composed of a rock wall positioned at the low tide mark and a flattened terrace on the landward side of the wall. Because these features are largely composed of rock and sediment, and have complex formation histories, they can be difficult to age. On northern Quadra Island, British Columbia, we identify three variations in clam garden form, constructed in different geomorphological settings, each of which require different sampling approaches to obtain ages on construction and ongoing use. To age the clam gardens, we consider radiocarbon dating of invertebrates that inhabit beach deposits (both pre- and post-garden construction), and the relationship of the gardens and clam samples to the local sea level history and taphonomic processes. Within our study area, we find clam gardens have been in use for 3500 years, likely corresponding to other social and ecological changes of the time. These data allow us to formulate guidelines on samples most suitable to constrain the age of initial and on-going wall construction and use of clam gardens, which can be extrapolated to dating other ancient mariculture features in other regions. Such dating programs are the foundation for understanding the long-term development of traditional marine management practices and how they are situated in broader social-ecological systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunotherapy with the chimeric anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody dinutuximab, combined with alternating granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor and intravenous interleukin-2 (IL-2), improves survival in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma. We aimed to assess event-free survival after treatment with ch14.18/CHO (dinutuximab beta) and subcutaneous IL-2, compared with dinutuximab beta alone in children and young people with high-risk neuroblastoma.Methods: We did an international, open-label, phase 3, randomised, controlled trial in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma at 104 institutions in 12 countries. Eligible patients were aged 1-20 years and had MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma with stages 2, 3, or 4S, or stage 4 neuroblastoma of any MYCN status, according to the International Neuroblastoma Staging System. Patients were eligible if they had been enrolled at diagnosis in the HR-NBL1/SIOPEN trial, had completed the multidrug induction regimen (cisplatin, carboplatin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and etoposide, with or without topotecan, vincristine, and doxorubicin), had achieved a disease response that fulfilled prespecified criteria, had received high-dose therapy (busulfan and melphalan or carboplatin, etoposide, and melphalan) and had received radiotherapy to the primary tumour site. In this component of the trial, patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive dinutuximab beta (20 mg/m2 per day as an 8 h infusion for 5 consecutive days) or dinutuximab beta plus subcutaneous IL-2 (6 × 106 IU/m2 per day on days 1-5 and days 8-12 of each cycle) with the minimisation method to balance randomisation for national groups and type of high-dose therapy. All participants received oral isotretinoin (160 mg/m2 per day for 2 weeks) before the first immunotherapy cycle and after each immunotherapy cycle, for six cycles. The primary endpoint was 3-year event-free survival, analysed by intention to treat. This trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01704716, and EudraCT, number 2006-001489-17, and recruitment to this randomisation is closed.Findings: Between Oct 22, 2009, and Aug 12, 2013, 422 patients were eligible to participate in the immunotherapy randomisation, of whom 406 (96%) were randomly assigned to a treatment group (n=200 to dinutuximab beta and n=206 to dinutuximab beta with subcutaneous IL-2). Median follow-up was 4·7 years (IQR 3·9-5·3). Because of toxicity, 117 (62%) of 188 patients assigned to dinutuximab beta and subcutaneous IL-2 received their allocated treatment, by contrast with 160 (87%) of 183 patients who received dinutuximab beta alone (p<0·0001). 3-year event-free survival was 56% (95% CI 49-63) with dinutuximab beta (83 patients had an event) and 60% (53-66) with dinutuximab beta and subcutaneous IL-2 (80 patients had an event; p=0·76). Four patients died of toxicity (n=2 in each group); one patient in each group while receiving immunotherapy (n=1 congestive heart failure and pulmonary hypertension due to capillary leak syndrome; n=1 infection-related acute respiratory distress syndrome), and one patient in each group after five cycles of immunotherapy (n=1 fungal infection and multi-organ failure; n=1 pulmonary fibrosis). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were hypersensitivity reactions (19 [10%] of 185 patients in the dinutuximab beta group vs 39 [20%] of 191 patients in the dinutuximab plus subcutaneous IL-2 group), capillary leak (five [4%] of 119 vs 19 [15%] of 125), fever (25 [14%] of 185 vs 76 [40%] of 190), infection (47 [25%] of 185 vs 64 [33%] of 191), immunotherapy-related pain (19 [16%] of 122 vs 32 [26%] of 124), and impaired general condition (30 [16%] of 185 vs 78 [41%] of 192).Interpretation: There is no evidence that addition of subcutaneous IL-2 to immunotherapy with dinutuximab beta, given as an 8 h infusion, improved outcomes in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma who had responded to standard induction and consolidation treatment. Subcutaneous IL-2 with dinutuximab beta was associated with greater toxicity than dinutuximab beta alone. Dinutuximab beta and isotretinoin without subcutaneous IL-2 should thus be considered the standard of care until results of ongoing randomised trials using a modified schedule of dinutuximab beta and subcutaneous IL-2 are available.Funding: European Commission 5th Frame Work Grant, St. Anna Kinderkrebsforschung, Fondation ARC pour la recherche sur le Cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While changes in the abundance of keystone predators can have cascading effects resulting in regime shifts, the role of mesopredators in these processes remains underexplored. We conducted annual surveys of rocky reef communities that varied in the recovery of a keystone predator (sea otter, Enhydra lutris) and the mass mortality of a mesopredator (sunflower sea star, Pycnopodia helianthoides) due to an infectiouswasting disease. By fitting a population model to empirical data,we showthat sea otters had the greatest impact on the mortality of large sea urchins, but that Pycnopodia decline corresponded to a 311%increase in medium urchins and a 30% decline in kelp densities. Our results reveal that predator complementarity in size-selective prey consumption strengthens top-down control on urchins, affecting the resilience of alternative reef states by reinforcing the resilience of kelp forests and eroding the resilience of urchin barrens.We reveal previously underappreciated species interactions within a 'classic' trophic cascade and regime shift, highlighting the critical role of middle-level predators in mediating rocky reef state transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An insect-toxic protein, Bb70p, was purified from Beauveria bassiana 70 using ammonium sulfate precipitation, ion exchange chromatography, and gel filtration. Bb70p has a high affinity for anion exchangers and 2D electrophoresis results revealed a single spot with a molecular weight of 35.5 kDa and an iso-electric point of ∼4.5. Bb70p remains active from 4 to 60 °C, within a pH range of 4–10, but is more active in slightly acidic pH. A pure protein, Bb70p does not have any carbohydrate side chains. The protein caused high mortality by intra-haemocelic injection into Galleria mellonella with LD50 of 334.4 μg/g body weight and activates the phenol oxidase cascade. With a partial amino acid sequence comparison using the NCBI database, we showed no homology to known toxin proteins of entomopathogenic fungi. Thus, Bb70p appears to be an insect toxin protein, demonstrating novelty. Identification of this insect-toxic protein presents potential to enhance the virulence of B . bassiana through genetic manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food crops have come under increasing threat from soil insect pests as a result of monotonous use of arable land and the unavailability or ban of soil insecticides. The development of new management strategies is hindered by the limited knowledge of the identity and biology of local soil pests. A literature survey was carried out focusing on the cold temperate zones of East Asia (north-eastern China, far south-eastern Russia, both Koreas). As for DPR Korea, field surveys were added. At least 53 soil insect species appeared to have wide-ranging importance. The highest diversity of soil pests attack maize (at least 29 species), cereals (27), soybean (19), potato (19), other beans (16), peanut (16), fruit tree nurseries (14), followed by cabbage, sorghum, cotton, grassland habitats, and sweet potato. Most belong to the Melolonthidae (21 %), Scarabeidae (15 %), Noctuidae (13 %) or Elateridae (11 %). Genera containing the most species were the melolonthid Holotrichia (at least five species), scarabeid Anomala (5), agromyzid Delia (4) and noctuid Agrotis, melolonthid Maladera, and gryllotalpid Gryllotalpa (each three). Below-ground damaging pests appeared widely problematic across the cold temperate zones, probably due to the limited variety of crops suitable for rotation or strip cropping, and efficient adaptation of pests to the soil environment as a result of long overwintering periods. This review will, as a result of making some of a vast repository of non-English language information available, help to better understand the soil pest community in these regions, and support the development of more effective control methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Central Africa, plantain is traditionally grown after a forest fallow. Given increasing urban demand and a lack of forest fallows near urban centres, as well as poor roads and environmental concerns to reduce pressure on forests, research is needed to identify suitable shade, fertility management and cultivars to shift production of plantain to grasslands and to reduce losses to diseases such as black leaf streak disease (BLSD). Effects of light level (full, 67%, 33% light), and nitrogen (N)-amendment on BLSD-tolerant (FHIA-21) and BLSD-susceptible (Batard) cultivars planted on soil from paired grassland and forest sites were determined. BLSD and growth were monitored until 5 months after planting. Three months after planting, leaf area attacked on cultivar FHIA-21 was less than half that on Batard. Plants grown under 33% and 67% light had less leaf area attacked (2.9% and 4.6%, respectively) than those grown in full light (7.3%). Leaf area and dry matter (DM) were higher under shade and when grown on forest soils. Compared to growing BLSD-susceptible plantain on forested land under shade, a shift onto grasslands and a reduction in shade use is predicted to reduce yields. Using cultivar FHIA-21 may limit, but not eliminate, yield loss. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: Frosty pod rot (FPR), caused by Moniliophthora roreri, reduces yields of cocoa (Theobroma cacao) by over 80% within a few years of disease outbreak. Both biological and chemical control approaches are being developed to supplement cultural management. Our objectives were to optimize the agent(s), their formulation and application regime for FPR control in Costa Rica. In order to economize scarce resources for field research, we opted for an iterative optimization of treatments. We aimed to (partly) replace copper hydroxide of proven efficacy with two systemic agents, the coevolved endophyte Trichoderma ovalisporum and the oxathiin flutolanil, and assessed four stickers for improving the agents’ performance. Over 3 years, we selected effective agents and their combinations: eight of 18 treatments increased yields. Orthogonal contrasts extracted three general trends: (1) Copper should be applied in water, whereas the systemic agents were best formulated with a sticker. There was no difference between the stickers BreakThru and NP-7. (2) If the first rule was observed, a switch from systemic agent to the contact fungicide in mid season was beneficial. The optimum timing for this change requires further definition. (3) T. ovalisporum-containing agents controlled black pod better than flutolanil-based ones; both systemic agents were equally effective in controlling the more severe FPR. We discuss potential benefits of switching agents in the context of organic agriculture and argue that coevolved endophytes may be particularly suited for the classical biocontrol of Moniliophthora spp. in cocoa planted outside its South American centre of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fungal endophytes were isolated from healthy stems and pods of Theobroma gileri, an alternative host of the frosty pod rot pathogen of cacao. Non-sporulating isolates were grouped into 46 different morphological species according to their colony morphology. Many of these morphospecies were assumed to be basidiomycetes and, therefore, were of particular interest. Basidiomycetous endophytes have received far less attention than ascomycetes and also have potential as biological control agents of the basidiomycetous pathogens of T. cacao: Moniliophthora roreri (frosty pod rot pathogen) and M. perniciosa (witches'' broom disease). The morphospecies were further characterised by molecular analyses. Amplification of the nuLSU was undertaken for phylogenetic placement of these non-sporulating cultures and revealed a total of 31 different taxa of which 15 were basidiomycetes belonging to the class Agaricomycetes, and 16 ascomycetes primarily belonging to the Sordariomycetes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The purpose of this historical study was to compare the outcome for two treatment strategies, for neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The records of 65 infants born between 1991 and 2005 with CDH from a single tertiary care perinatal centre in the United Kingdom were retrospectively reviewed. Conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) and systemic vasodilators were used from 1991 to 1995 (era 1). High frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) and nitric oxide (NO) were used between 1996 and 2005 (era 2). Main outcome measures were survival and incidence of chronic lung disease. The results showed that the survival rate was 38% (8/21) in era 1 and 73% (32/44) in era 2, 95% CI for difference −59 to −10%. The incidence of chronic lung disease in survivors was 45% (5/11) in era 1 and 30% (9/30) in era 2, 95% CI for difference −18 to 49%. These data show significantly improved survival with elective use of HFOV and NO compared to CMV and systemic vasodilators. The survival results for CDH at St George’s Hospital are comparable to those published from other institutions. The results may reflect a reduction in ventilator-induced lung injury with HFOV compared to CMV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Trichoderma theobromicola and T. paucisporum spp. nov. are described. Trichoderma theobromicola was isolated as an endophyte from the trunk of a healthy cacao tree (Theobroma cacao, Malvaceae) in Amazonian Peru; it sporulates profusely on common mycological media. Trichoderma paucisporum is represented by two cultures that were obtained in Ecuador from cacao pods partially infected with frosty pod rot, Moniliophthora roreri; it sporulates sporadically and most cultures remain sterile on common media and autoclaved rice. It sporulates more reliably on synthetic low-nutrient agar (SNA) but produces few conidia. Trichoderma theobromicola was reintroduced into cacao seedlings through shoot inoculation and was recovered from stems but not from leaves, indicating that it is an endophytic species. Both produced a volatile/diffusable antibiotic that inhibited development of M. roreri in vitro and on-pod trials. Neither species demonstrated significant direct in vitro mycoparasitic activity against M. roreri. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

To explore the effects of immunotherapy in the International Society of Paediatric Oncology Europe Neuroblastoma Group SIOPEN high-risk neuroblastoma 1 trial (HR-NBL1 trial), two cohorts were studied: one prior to and one after the introduction of dinutuximab beta. All patients received standard induction and high-dose therapy (HDT) with autologous stem cell rescue (ASCR); the local control comprised surgery and radiotherapy to the primary tumour site, followed by isotretinoin. A landmark timepoint of 109 days, resulting from the median time between ASCR and initiation of immunotherapy, was used to define patients' eligibility in the pre-immunotherapy analysis cohort. Median follow-up was 5.8 years (inter-quartile range (IQR): 4.2–8.2 years) for 844 eligible patients balanced for risk factors, such as age, sex, stage 4, MYCN amplification and response prior to HDT. The five-year event-free and overall survival (95% confidence interval (CI) of 466 patients not receiving immunotherapy was 42% (38–47%) and 50% (46–55%) but was 57% (51–62%) and 64% (59–69%) for 378 patients receiving immunotherapy (p < 0.001). A multivariate analysis identified absence of immunotherapy (p = 0.0002, hazard ratio (HR) 1.573); type of HDT (p = 0.0029, HR 1.431); less than complete response prior to maintenance therapy (p = 0.0043, HR 1.494) and >1 metastatic compartment at diagnosis (p < 0.001, HR 2.665) as risk factors for relapse or progression. Results suggest an important role for dinutuximab beta-based immunotherapy within the treatment concepts applied in HR-NBL1/SIOPEN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]