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Smallholder farmers with limited governmental and institutional support often devise innovative strategies to mitigate the impacts of water stress on agricultural production. These drought mitigation strategies can be more culturally and ecologically suitable than top-down, "technocratic," strategies. Top-down drought mitigation approaches, however, often link farmers with significant infrastructures, financial resources, and specialized knowledge. Successful rescaling of localized mitigation practices can integrate the benefits of localized mitigation with resources available at larger scales. This paper describes the rescaling of a Sri Lankan drought mitigation practice known as bethma. We focus on the process of rescaling, specifically what is lost and gained when this local practice is implemented at a much larger scale. We identify factors driving participation in bethma and the impacts of this participation on farmer livelihoods. Results suggest that participation in bethma during water-scarce seasons has significant positive impacts on agricultural yields, but that this participation is strongly influenced by the nature of a farmer's land ownership. Much of the success of bethma's implementation is due to the decentralized, flexible implementation at a regional scale. The loss of localized information, however, influences farmer participation in the practices and the distribution of the benefits associated with bethma.

· There is a growing interest on the part of philanthropy and government in working together to address problems of common interest. But crosssectoral collaborations are not easy. In response, a new organizational structure – the office of strategic partnerships – is emerging that catalyzes, fosters, and accelerates such partnerships. · These offices help to overcome the barriers of working across sectors by sharing knowledge and information about the sectors, identifying and convening stakeholders to discuss shared solutions, and leveraging resources to support public-problem solving. · Based on interviews and a convening of principals of six of these offices at the city, state, and federal levels, this article1 examines the lessons for making these offices successful in facilitating government-philanthropic partnerships. · In particular, it focuses on the need to determine appropriate roles and expectations, match philanthropic and government interests, find and field the right leadership, and build a record of success that encourages the sustainability of these offices.

Was führte nach 1945 dazu, dass die evangelische Kirche sich so intensiv um die Täter kümmerte? Welche Rolle – wenn überhaupt – spielten die Opfer? Es zeichnet sich einerseits ein aus heutiger Sicht verstörendes Bild ab, das andererseits vor dem Hintergrund zeitgenössischer politischer wie theologischer Debatten verstanden werden muss. Damit stellt dieses Buch nicht nur einige Akteure und Netzwerke der kirchlichen Unterstützung von NS-Tätern nach 1945 vor, sondern geht auch auf Erklärungen, Rechtfertigungen und Selbstrechtfertigungen ein. Die Autoren; nehmen dabei auch kritisch Klischees zur Wahrnehmung kirchlicher Geschichte in den Blick, wie etwa die Wahrnehmung der Bekennenden Kirche in der Öffentlichkeit. Eine Gesamtschau auf das komplexe Thema rundet das Buch jeweils zu Beginn und Ende ab.

Green roofs are increasingly promoted for urban biodiversity conservation, but the value of these novel habitats is uncertain. We aimed to test two hypotheses: (i) green roofs can support comparable invertebrate family and order richness, composition and abundances to ground-level habitats and (ii) green roofs planted with native species from local habitats will support a richer invertebrate community at family and order level than other green roofs. We sampled the invertebrate community on green roofs dominated by native grassland or introduced succulent species in Melbourne, Australia, and compared these to the invertebrate community in ground-level sites close by, and sites with similar vegetation types. The only significant differences between the invertebrate communities sampled on green roofs and ground-level habitats were total abundance and fly family richness, which were higher in ground-level habitats. Second hypothesis was not supported as invertebrate communities on green roofs supporting a local vegetation community and those planted with introduced Sedum and other succulents were not detectably different at family level. The per cent cover of green space surrounding each site was consistently important in predicting the richness and abundance of the invertebrate families we focussed on, while roof height, site age and size were influential for some taxa. Our results suggest that invertebrate communities of green roofs in Melbourne are driven largely by their surrounding environment and consequently the effectiveness of green roofs as invertebrate habitat is highly dependent on location and their horizontal and vertical connection to other habitats. ; City of Melbourne for funds that enabled Nathan Brown to identify the Diptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera families. C.G.T. received support from Australia Research Council Linkage Grant LP0990383 and the Clean Air and Urban Landscapes Hub, which was funded by the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program. B.N. received support from the Natural Environment Research Council (grant number NE/J015067/1).

AbstractGreen roofs are increasingly promoted for urban biodiversity conservation, but the value of these novel habitats is uncertain. We aimed to test two hypotheses: (i) green roofs can support comparable invertebrate family and order richness, composition and abundances to ground-level habitats and (ii) green roofs planted with native species from local habitats will support a richer invertebrate community at family and order level than other green roofs. We sampled the invertebrate community on green roofs dominated by native grassland or introduced succulent species in Melbourne, Australia, and compared these to the invertebrate community in ground-level sites close by, and sites with similar vegetation types. The only significant differences between the invertebrate communities sampled on green roofs and ground-level habitats were total abundance and fly family richness, which were higher in ground-level habitats. Second hypothesis was not supported as invertebrate communities on green roofs supporting a local vegetation community and those planted with introduced Sedum and other succulents were not detectably different at family level. The per cent cover of green space surrounding each site was consistently important in predicting the richness and abundance of the invertebrate families we focussed on, while roof height, site age and size were influential for some taxa. Our results suggest that invertebrate communities of green roofs in Melbourne are driven largely by their surrounding environment and consequently the effectiveness of green roofs as invertebrate habitat is highly dependent on location and their horizontal and vertical connection to other habitats.

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002786 ; Background: Psychological suffering is ubiquitous with cancer and frequently presents as an unmet supportive care need. In clinical practice, distress-related needs are often addressed by nurses and non-psychologist allied healthcare professionals who may have limited training in psychological therapeutic frameworks, particularly more recently-developed interventions such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Aims: We developed a single-day training programme for professionals working in supportive and palliative cancer care settings to change the nature of clinical communication about psychological distress and suffering towards an ACT-consistent approach. Method: We report on experiences of training delivery, and evaluation data about training satisfaction and intention to apply the training to clinical practice, from three training iterations in British and Australian, government-funded and charitable sectors. One hundred and sixteen cancer care professionals participated in the training. Evaluation data was collected from 53 participants (at either two-week or three-month follow-up, or both) using self-report survey including both quantitative and free-text questions. Results: At two-week follow-up, 73% of trainees rating our course as having relevance to their work, and at three-month follow up, 46% agreed that they were better placed to provide improved clinical services. Qualitative feedback supported the inclusion of experiential learning and theoretical explanations underpinning ACT techniques. Undertaking this training did not significantly increase trainees' stress levels, nor did implementation of this new way of working negatively affect staff wellbeing. Positive, ACT-consistent, changes in communication behaviours and attitudes were reported, however there ...

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Download ; Preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy, affecting both maternal and fetal health. In genome-wide association meta-analysis of European and Central Asian mothers, we identify sequence variants that associate with preeclampsia in the maternal genome at ZNF831/20q13 and FTO/16q12. These are previously established variants for blood pressure (BP) and the FTO variant has also been associated with body mass index (BMI). Further analysis of BP variants establishes that variants at MECOM/3q26, FGF5/4q21 and SH2B3/12q24 also associate with preeclampsia through the maternal genome. We further show that a polygenic risk score for hypertension associates with preeclampsia. However, comparison with gestational hypertension indicates that additional factors modify the risk of preeclampsia. ; European Union (EU) Wellcome Trust