Impact of systemic hypoxia and blood flow restriction on mechanical, cardiorespiratory, and neuromuscular responses to a multiple-set repeated sprint exercise.

Repeated sprint cycling exercises (RSE) performed under systemic normobaric hypoxia (HYP) or with blood flow restriction (BFR) are of growing interest. To the best of our knowledge, there is no stringent consensus on the cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular responses between systemic HYP and BFR during RSE. Thus, this study assessed cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular responses to multiple sets of RSE under HYP or with BFR.

Widespread retreat of coastal habitat is likely at warming levels above 1.5 °C.

Several coastal ecosystems-most notably mangroves and tidal marshes-exhibit biogenic feedbacks that are facilitating adjustment to relative sea-level rise (RSLR), including the sequestration of carbon and the trapping of mineral sediment. The stability of reef-top habitats under RSLR is similarly linked to reef-derived sediment accumulation and the vertical accretion of protective coral reefs. The persistence of these ecosystems under high rates of RSLR is contested.

Linking isotopic signatures of nitrogen in nearshore coral skeletons with sources in catchment runoff.

We use a multi-tracer approach to identify catchment sources of nitrogen (N) in the skeletons of nearshore Porites corals within the Great Barrier Reef. We measured δN, δC and C:N ratios of particulate organic matter (POM) sampled from the Pioneer River catchment and identified five distinct end-members: (1) marine planktonic and algal-dominated matter with higher δN values from the river mouth and coastal waters; (2) estuarine planktonic and algal matter with lower δN values associated with estuarine mixing; (3) lower river freshwater phytoplankton and algal-dominated matter in stratified reservoirs adjacent to catchment weirs, with the N-enriched source likely caused by microbial remineralization and denitrification; (4) upper river low δN terrigenous soil matter eroded from cane fields bordering waterways; and (5) terrestrial plant detrital matter in forest streams, representing a low δN fixed atmospheric nitrogen source. The δN values of adjacent, nearshore Porites coral skeletons is reflective of POM composition in coastal waters, with N-enriched values reflective of transformed N during flood pulses from the Pioneer River.

Event loading drives distribution of the organochlorine pesticide metabolite DDE in a sub-tropical river system, Brisbane River, Australia.

Past catchment practices can contribute to environmental impacts for decades following their cessation. We examine the distribution of the prevalent organochlorine pesticide, dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and its metabolites (DDE, DDD) in the sediments of a sub-tropical river system (Brisbane River, Australia). This study aimed to identify sources of DDT, DDE, DDD into the lower reaches of the Brisbane River.

Water quality challenges associated with industrial logging of a karst landscape: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

Human disturbance of karst landscapes in tropical volcanic islands present a unique challenge for understanding sediment transport to the coastal zone. Here we present the first evidence of urban drinking water quality impacts from industrial logging in the Solomon Islands. Despite only 6% of the Honiara's drinking water catchment being disturbed by logging, rhodamine dye tracers demonstrated complex karst sinkholes that led to high suspended sediment concentrations being transported from neighbouring Kovi catchment into the Kongulai water supply offtake point for Honiara.

Assessing the potential of unmanned aerial vehicle spraying of aqueous ozone as an outdoor disinfectant for SARS-CoV-2.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed gaps in our understanding of safe, effective and efficient means of disinfecting high use public spaces. Whilst this creates an opportunity for development and application of innovative approaches such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based disinfection, unregulated outdoor disinfection using chlorine has led to environmental and public health risks. This study has quantified the efficiency, safety and efficacy of UAV-based spraying of aqueous ozone.

Sediment arsenic hotspots in an abandoned tailings storage facility, Gold Ridge Mine, Solomon Islands.

Gold mining of arsenopyrite ore bodies result in waste tailings that contain elevated levels of arsenic. Disposal of these wastes in a Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) represents a substantial environmental risk if not properly managed. The Gold Ridge mine on Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands was abandoned from 2014 to 2018, leaving the TSF with little ongoing environmental management.

Biocultural approaches to well-being and sustainability indicators across scales.

Monitoring and evaluation are central to ensuring that innovative, multi-scale, and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability are effective. The development of relevant indicators for local sustainable management outcomes, and the ability to link these to broader national and international policy targets, are key challenges for resource managers, policymakers, and scientists. Sets of indicators that capture both ecological and social-cultural factors, and the feedbacks between them, can underpin cross-scale linkages that help bridge local and global scale initiatives to increase resilience of both humans and ecosystems.

Importance of sediment organic matter to methane ebullition in a sub-tropical freshwater reservoir.

This paper summarises the results of an extensive field campaign which demonstrates that high sediment organic matter is the primary driver of methane ebullition in a sub-tropical, freshwater reservoir. Methane emissions from freshwater reservoirs represent an important global methane source. Whilst diffusive methane fluxes are commonly used for predicting total emissions, recent studies show that the under-reported ebullitive fluxes can vary by over three orders of magnitude within an individual system and have a greater relative contribution compared to diffusion.

Environmental change in a modified catchment downstream of a gold mine, Solomon Islands.

Solomon Islands is rapidly developing its natural resource exploitation sector, but data needed to assess consequent environmental impacts are scarce. We assessed catchments surrounding the Gold Ridge gold mine (Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) and found that extensive changes in river course, and water and sediment quality have occurred downstream of the gold mine since its development. Sediment run-off from exposed areas associated with the mine pit has increased, elevating turbidity (up to 2450 NTU) and metal and arsenic levels, with levels of the latter being up to 0.

Tracing the influence of land-use change on water quality and coral reefs using a Bayesian model.

Coastal ecosystems can be degraded by poor water quality. Tracing the causes of poor water quality back to land-use change is necessary to target catchment management for coastal zone management. However, existing models for tracing the sources of pollution require extensive data-sets which are not available for many of the world's coral reef regions that may have severe water quality issues.

Dramatic increase in mud distribution across a large sub-tropical embayment, Moreton Bay, Australia.

Major flood events can dramatically alter the coastal sediment environment. This study established the current sediment distribution in a large sub-tropical embayment, Moreton Bay, Australia, and examined the effect of three recent floods on modifying this distribution. In 2015, surface sediment samples were collected from 223 sites across the study area and analysed for particle size distribution with the resultant sediment distribution mapped.

Cumulative Risk on the Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) Predicts Empathic Communication by Physician Assistant Students.

In the relationship between patients and health care providers, few communicative features are as significant as the providers' ability to express empathy. A robust empirical literature describes the importance of physician communication skills-particularly those that convey empathy-yet few studies have examined empathic communication by physician assistants, who provide primary care for an increasing number of Americans. The present study examines the empathic communication of physician assistant students in interactions with standardized patients.

Empathy Between Physician Assistant Students and Standardized Patients: Evidence of an Inflation Bias.

Purpose: Empathic communication with patients is an essential component of quality primary care. This study examines the ability of physician assistant (PA) students to communicate empathically in clinical interviews with standardized patients.

Methods: In their first year of training, PA students conducted 3 clinical interviews with standardized patients over a 6-month period in 2014, during the second half of their didactic year.

Keeping Food on the Table: Human Responses and Changing Coastal Fisheries in Solomon Islands.

Globally the majority of commercial fisheries have experienced dramatic declines in stock and catch. Likewise, projections for many subsistence fisheries in the tropics indicate a dramatic decline is looming in the coming decades. In the Pacific Islands coastal fisheries provide basic subsistence needs for millions of people.

Can Perceptions of Environmental and Climate Change in Island Communities Assist in Adaptation Planning Locally?

Local perceptions of environmental and climate change, as well as associated adaptations made by local populations, are fundamental for designing comprehensive and inclusive mitigation and adaptation plans both locally and nationally. In this paper, we analyze people's perceptions of environmental and climate-related transformations in communities across the Western Solomon Islands through ethnographic and geospatial methods. Specifically, we documented people's observed changes over the past decades across various environmental domains, and for each change, we asked respondents to identify the causes, timing, and people's adaptive responses.

Corals persisting in naturally turbid waters adjacent to a pristine catchment in Solomon Islands.

Few water quality measurements exist from pristine environments, with fewer reported studies of coastal water quality from Solomon Islands. Water quality benchmarks for the Solomons have relied on data from other geographic regions, often from quite different higher latitude developed nations, with large land masses. We present the first data of inshore turbidity and sedimentation rate for a pristine catchment on Isabel Island.

The contribution of nearshore fish aggregating devices (FADs) to food security and livelihoods in Solomon Islands.

Fish aggregating devices, or FADs, are used widely in developing countries to concentrate pelagic fish, making them easier to catch. Nearshore FADs anchored close to the coast allow access for rural communities, but despite their popularity among policy makers, there is a dearth of empirical analysis of their contributions to the supply of fish and to fisheries management. In this paper we demonstrate that nearshore FADs increased the supply of fish to four communities in Solomon Islands.

Baseline arsenic levels in marine and terrestrial resources from a pristine environment: Isabel Island, Solomon Islands.

Baseline records are crucial in understanding how chemicals of concern impact on the receiving environment. We analysed terrestrial and marine resources from a pristine site on Isabel Island, Solomon Islands, to provide environmental baseline levels for total arsenic and arsenic species composition for commonly consumed marine resources. Our data show that levels of the more toxic inorganic arsenic species were very low or below detectable limits, with the exception of the seaweed Sargassum sp.

Incorporating surrogate species and seascape connectivity to improve marine conservation outcomes.

Conservation focuses on maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, but gaps in our knowledge of species biology and ecological processes often impede progress. For this reason, focal species and habitats are used as surrogates for multispecies conservation, but species-based approaches are not widely adopted in marine ecosystems. Reserves in the Solomon Islands were designed on the basis of local ecological knowledge to conserve bumphead parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum) and to protect food security and ecosystem functioning.

Effect of diel activity patterns and harvesting pressure on the diversity and biomass of sea cucumbers in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands.

A marked decline in the contribution by Marovo Lagoon to the annual total bêche-de-mer production of the Solomon Islands from 58% in 1989 to 17% in 2003 prompted investigation of their current biomass and diversity. We also assessed changes to critical ecological services and the prospects for population recovery following a fisheries closure. Day time and nocturnal transects revealed a mean abundance of 32.

Blooms of the cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula in coastal Queensland, Australia: disparate sites, common factors.

During the last decade there has been a significant rise in observations of blooms of the toxic cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula along the east coast of Queensland, Australia. Whether the increase in cyanobacterial abundance is a biological indicator of widespread water quality degradation or also a function of other environmental change is unknown. A bioassay approach was used to assesses the potential for runoff from various land uses to stimulate productivity of L.

Water quality monitoring: a combined approach to investigate gradients of change in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

For the managers of a region as large as the Great Barrier Reef, it is a challenge to develop a cost effective monitoring program, with appropriate temporal and spatial resolution to detect changes in water quality. The current study compares water quality data (phytoplankton abundance and water clarity) from remote sensing with field sampling (continuous underway profiles of water quality and fixed site sampling) at different spatial scales in the Great Barrier Reef north of Mackay (20 degrees S). Five transects (20-30 km long) were conducted from clean oceanic water to the turbid waters adjacent to the mainland.