The evolution of ocean literacy: A new framework for the United Nations Ocean Decade and beyond.

First introduced in the early 2000s, the concept of ocean literacy has evolved in recent years, not least since its inclusion as a mechanism for change within the United Nations Ocean Decade's goals. Building on early definitions of ocean literacy, there has been increasing recognition of a range of additional dimensions which contribute to an individual or collective sense of 'ocean literacy'. Drawing on existing research, and parallel and supporting concepts, e.g., marine citizenship, ocean connectedness, and public perceptions research, this paper proposes ten dimensions of ocean literacy: knowledge, communication, behaviour, awareness, attitudes, activism, emotional connection, access and experience, adaptive capacity and trust and transparency, and recommends expanding previously recognised dimensions, in a bid to ensure that ocean literacy encompasses diverse knowledges, values and experiences. The paper provides a useful framework for ongoing ocean literacy research, and highlights aspects of ocean literacy which have received limited focus to date.

Oil and gas infrastructure decommissioning in marine protected areas: System complexity, analysis and challenges.

Many offshore oil and gas production facilities are nearing the end of their operational life, with decommissioning now becoming a global challenge. The compatibility of decommissioning operations to marine protected areas (MPAs) creates further challenges. The recently-developed DAPSI(W)R(M) problem structuring framework (covering Drivers, Activities, Pressures, State changes, Impacts (on Welfare) and Responses (as Measures)) was applied here to interrogate the complexity of decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure within MPAs, with outputs feeding into the development of a novel database tool for Screening Potential Impacts of Decommissioning Activities (SPIDA). In meeting the current requirements of the marine regulatory regime, SPIDA provides a more streamlined, evidence-based process which can be applied by industry, statutory nature conservation bodies and regulators for identifying and evaluating evidence that supports the implications of decommissioning alternatives on the condition of MPAs. SPIDA has been developed to be adapted for other activities and sectors, including offshore renewables.

"And DPSIR begat DAPSI(W)R(M)!" - A unifying framework for marine environmental management.

The marine environment is a complex system formed by interactions between ecological structure and functioning, physico-chemical processes and socio-economic systems. An increase in competing marine uses and users requires a holistic approach to marine management which considers the environmental, economic and societal impacts of all activities. If managed sustainably, the marine environment will deliver a range of ecosystem services which lead to benefits for society. In order to understand the complexity of the system, the DPSIR (Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response) approach has long been a valuable problem-structuring framework used to assess the causes, consequences and responses to change in a holistic way. Despite DPSIR being used for a long time, there is still confusion over the definition of its terms and so to be appropriate for current marine management, we contend that this confusion needs to be addressed. Our viewpoint advocates that DPSIR should be extended to DAPSI(W)R(M) (pronounced dap-see-worm) in which Drivers of basic human needs require Activities which lead to Pressures. The Pressures are the mechanisms of State change on the natural system which then leads to Impacts (on human Welfare). Those then require Responses (as Measures). Furthermore, because of the complexity of any managed sea area in terms of multiple Activities, there is the need for a linked-DAPSI(W)R(M) framework, and then the connectivity between marine ecosystems and ecosystems in the catchment and further at sea, requires an interlinked, nested-DAPSI(W)R(M) framework to reflect the continuum between adjacent ecosystems. Finally, the unifying framework for integrated marine management is completed by encompassing ecosystem structure and functioning, ecosystem services and societal benefits. Hence, DAPSI(W)R(M) links the socio-ecological system of the effects of changes to the natural system on the human uses and benefits of the marine system. However, to deliver these sustainably in the light of human activities requires a Risk Assessment and Risk Management framework; the ISO-compliant Bow-Tie method is used here as an example. Finally, to secure ecosystem health and economic benefits such as Blue Growth, successful, adaptive and sustainable marine management Responses (as Measures) are delivered using the 10-tenets, a set of facets covering all management disciplines and approaches.

Coastal Zone Ecosystem Services: from science to values and decision making; a case study.

This research is concerned with the following environmental research questions: socio-ecological system complexity, especially when valuing ecosystem services; ecosystems stock and services flow sustainability and valuation; the incorporation of scale issues when valuing ecosystem services; and the integration of knowledge from diverse disciplines for governance and decision making. In this case study, we focused on ecosystem services that can be jointly supplied but independently valued in economic terms: healthy climate (via carbon sequestration and storage), food (via fisheries production in nursery grounds), and nature recreation (nature watching and enjoyment). We also explored the issue of ecosystem stock and services flow, and we provide recommendations on how to value stock and flows of ecosystem services via accounting and economic values respectively. We considered broadly comparable estuarine systems located on the English North Sea coast: the Blackwater estuary and the Humber estuary. In the past, these two estuaries have undergone major land-claim. Managed realignment is a policy through which previously claimed intertidal habitats are recreated allowing the enhancement of the ecosystem services provided by saltmarshes. In this context, we investigated ecosystem service values, through biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates. Using an optimistic (extended conservation of coastal ecosystems) and a pessimistic (loss of coastal ecosystems because of, for example, European policy reversal) scenario, we find that context dependency, and hence value transfer possibilities, vary among ecosystem services and benefits. As a result, careful consideration in the use and application of value transfer, both in biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates, is advocated to supply reliable information for policy making.

What are the costs and benefits of biodiversity recovery in a highly polluted estuary?

Biodiversity recovery measures have often been ignored when dealing with the restoration of degraded aquatic systems. Furthermore, biological valuation methods have been applied only spatially in previous studies, and not jointly on a temporal and spatial scale. The intense monitoring efforts carried out in a highly polluted estuary, in northern Spain (Nervión estuary), allowed for the economic valuation of the costs and the biological valuation of the benefits associated with a 21 years sewage scheme application. The analysis show that the total amount of money invested into the sewage scheme has contributed to the estuary's improvement of both environmental and biological features, as well as to an increase in the uses and services provided by the estuary. However, the inner and outer parts of the estuary showed different responses. An understanding of the costs and trajectories of the environmental recovery of degraded aquatic systems is increasingly necessary to allow policy makers and regulators to formulate robust, cost-efficient and feasible management decisions.

Interleukin-1ß enhances cartilage-to-cartilage integration.

The failure of cartilages to fuse, particularly in the case of articular cartilage under conditions of repair is due to morphological and structural constraints of the tissue. Factors that impede integration include, non-vascularisation, low cellularity, and proteoglycan in the surrounding extracellular matrix acting as a natural barrier to cellular migration. We hypothesised that brief activation of a catabolic cascade by cytokines followed by culture under anabolic conditions would promote tissue fusion in a ring-disk model of cartilage integration. Our results show that transient exposure to 10 ng mL(-1) interleukin-1ß, followed by two weeks post-culture under anabolic conditions, enhanced cartilage-cartilage integration compared to untreated explants. Quantitative PCR analysis of catabolism-related genes ADAMTS4 and MMP13 showed both were transiently upregulated and these findings correlated with evidence of extracellular matrix remodelling. At the level of histology, we observed chondrocytes readily populated the interfacial matrix between fused explants in interleukin-1ß treated explants, whereas in control explants this region was relatively acellular in comparison. Catabolic cytokine treated explants exhibited 29-fold greater adhesive strength (0.859 MPa versus 0.028 MPa, P 〈 0.05) than untreated counterparts. Collectively, our results demonstrate that a single short catabolic pulse followed by an anabolic response is sufficient to generate mechanically robust, integrative cartilage repair.

Retargeted adenoviral cancer gene therapy for tumour cells overexpressing epidermal growth factor receptor or urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor.

We have assessed the ability of bispecific fusion proteins to improve adenovirus-mediated transfer of therapeutic and marker transgenes. We constructed an expression vector that can be easily modified to synthesize a variety of fusion proteins for retargeting adenoviral gene therapy vectors to cell surface markers, which are differentially expressed between normal and cancer cells. Adenoviral transduction can be improved in a number of tumour cell lines which overexpress EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) or uPAR (urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor), but which have only low levels of endogenous hCAR (human coxsackie B and adenovirus receptor) expression. Up to 40-fold improvement in beta-galactosidase transgene expression was seen using an EGFR retargeting protein, and up to 16-fold using a second fusion protein targeting uPAR. In vitro, our uPAR retargeting fusion protein improved the sensitivity to adenoviral herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase/ganciclovir by an order of magnitude, whereas in vivo, our EGFR retargeting protein is able to significantly delay tumour growth in rodent animal models in a dose-dependent manner. The 'cassette' design of our fusion protein constructs offers a flexible method for the straightforward synthesis of multiple adenoviral retargeting proteins, directed against a variety of tumour-associated antigens, for use in clinical trials.

Identification, definition and quantification of goods and services provided by marine biodiversity: implications for the ecosystem approach.

This paper identifies and defines ecosystem goods and services provided by marine biodiversity. Case studies have been used to provide an insight into the practical issues associated with the assessment of marine ecosystem goods and services at specific locations. The aim of this research was to validate the definitions of goods and services, and to identify knowledge gaps and likely difficulties of quantifying the goods and services. A validated theoretical framework for the assessment of goods and services is detailed, and examples of the goods and services at a variety of case study areas are documented. These results will enable future assessments of marine ecosystem goods and services. It is concluded that the utilisation of this goods and services approach has the capacity to play a fundamental role in the Ecosystem Approach, by enabling the pressures and demands of society, the economy and the environment to be integrated into environmental management.

The role of tumor necrosis factor in the development of multiple organ failure in a murine model.

OBJECTIVE: To elucidate the role of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) in the development of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) after zymosan-induced peritonitis in mice. DESIGN: Prospective controlled laboratory study on zymosan-induced generalized inflammation in mice. Over < or =28 days, a single intraperitoneal administration of zymosan induced a three-phase illness in C57BL mice, rendering them very ill with MODS-like symptoms from day 7 onward. Additionally, the same experiment was performed on C57BL/6 TNF-Rc-p55 knockout mice to elucidate the role of TNF and its receptor p55. SETTING: Animal research laboratory. SUBJECTS: Inbred C57BL mice and C57BL p55-/- mice received a single sterile intraperitoneal injection of zymosan suspended in paraffin oil (0.75 mg/g of body weight). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The animals were monitored for survival, condition, and body weight for < or =28 days. At 3, 7, 14, and 28 days after zymosan administration, bronchoalveolar lavage was performed and lungs and livers were extracted for isolation of RNA and histopathologic evaluation. Reverse-transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction was performed to quantify TNF-alpha messenger RNA (mRNA) in the respective organs. Both animal strains went through initial shock with a high mortality rate during the first 3 days. The C57BL mice developed MODS with typical symptoms and histopathologic results correlating with excessive TNF-alpha mRNA expression from day 7 onward. In contrast, no disease, histopathologic changes, nor TNF-alpha mRNA expression in liver or lung was found within the TNF-Rc-p55-/- mice. CONCLUSION: Organ-derived TNF-alpha plays a crucial role in the development of MODS in this murine model.