In his State of the Union Address on February 5, 2019, President Donald J. Trump announced his administration's goal to end the domestic HIV epidemic. Following the announcement of the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America initiative, the president proposed $291 million in new funding for the fiscal year 2020 Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) budget to implement a new initiative to reduce the number of new HIV infections by 75% in the next five years (2025) and by 90% in the next 10 years (2030). This is in addition to the $20 billion the US government already spends each year, domestically, for HIV prevention and care. With this initiative, HHS recognizes that the time to end the HIV epidemic is now: we have the right data, the right biomedical and behavioral tools, and the right leadership. With the new resources, the goal is achievable. This article outlines how this initiative will be accomplished through the implementation of four fundamental strategies that will be tailored by local communities on the basis of their own needs and strengths.
International audience ; This study looked at how the media framed biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, from 1994 to 2004 by analyzing the 13 media frames found in 286 biosolid-related articles from newspapers in Florida, Virginia, and California. The researchers found the articles framed biosolids as a regulatory or legal issue most often, and most of the frames' tones were neutral (1,958). However, negative tone (507) happened three times more often than positive tone (149), and environmental, management, and public nuisance framing tended to be more negative than any of the other frames. Neither the frames themselves nor the tones had statistically significant changes over the past decade. Regarding the sources used in the stories, the most frequent source was local government officials, which were used twice as frequently as any other source, followed by corporations (16 percent) and citizens (14 percent). These findings should help biosolid producers and officials in developing a media strategy that is proactive toward shaping public opinion rather than reactive to an issue that makes its way to the media and spurs public concern.
This study looked at how the media framed biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, from 1994 to 2004 by analyzing the 13 media frames found in 286 biosolid-related articles from newspapers in Florida, Virginia, and California. The researchers found the articles framed biosolids as a regulatory or legal issue most often, and most of the frames' tones were neutral (1,958). However, negative tone (507) happened three times more often than positive tone (149), and environmental, management, and public nuisance framing tended to be more negative than any of the other frames. Neither the frames themselves nor the tones had statistically significant changes over the past decade. Regarding the sources used in the stories, the most frequent source was local government officials, which were used twice as frequently as any other source, followed by corporations (16 percent) and citizens (14 percent). These findings should help biosolid producers and officials in developing a media strategy that is proactive toward shaping public opinion rather than reactive to an issue that makes its way to the media and spurs public concern.
This paper surveys the strategies adopted in England to support the development of teachers' subject knowledge and confidence in relation to teaching Citizenship, which was introduced as a new statutory subject in the National Curriculum in 2002. It reviews examples of good practice and explores how a continuing professional development (CPD) strategy developed at several levels to support teachers and curriculum managers. It outlines the challenges and obstacles in relation to implementing effective Citizenship education in schools. It also underlines the fundamental importance of Citizenship education if young people are to understand and engage with contemporary events in the early Twenty First Century.
Abstract: It is important to distinguish between the possible and the probable when speculating about developments in technology. It is difficult to foresee the uses which will be made of an invention, and often they are not the uses first proposed. With new technological developments almost anything is technically possible, although practical development of a possibility can be slower and more difficult than expected. Moreover, successful technical development does not guarantee acceptance by the public. Technology impinges on public administration in three ways. It is a tool, it creates new tasks, and new technology can change the expectations within society of the role and function of government and hence the role of public administration. Examples of the use of technology as a tool in public administration are evident in the areas of travel, telecommunications and data processing. Changes in technology create new administrative tasks related to increased public awareness of the dangers of many forms of technology, leading, for example, to consideration of problems of pollution, personal privacy and computer‐related crime. New expectations created by the increased information available through technological advances in communication will prompt increasing calls for open planning and public participation in decision making which will in turn lead to increased visibility of administrators and a greater measure of real accountability.
Abstract ContextThere is an increasing awareness that feral cats play a key role in driving the ongoing decline of small mammals across northern Australia; yet, the factors that control the distribution, abundance and behaviour of feral cats are poorly understood. These key knowledge gaps make it near-impossible for managers to mitigate the impacts of cats on small mammals. AimsWe investigated the environmental correlates of feral cat activity and abundance across the savanna woodlands of Melville Island, the larger of the two main Tiwi Islands, northern Australia. MethodsWe conducted camera-trap surveys at 88 sites, and related cat activity and abundance to a range of biophysical variables, either measured in the field or derived from remotely sensed data. Key resultsWe found that feral cat activity and abundance tended to be highest in areas characterised by severe disturbance regimes, namely high frequencies of severe fires and high feral herbivore activity. ConclusionsOur results have contributed to the growing body of research demonstrating that in northern Australian savanna landscapes, disturbance regimes characterised by frequent high-severity fires and grazing by feral herbivores may benefit feral cats. This is most likely to be a result of high-severity fire and grazing removing understorey biomass, which increases the time that the habitat remains in an open state in which cats can hunt more efficiently. This is due to both the frequent and extensive removal, and longer-term thinning of ground layer vegetation by severe fires, as well as the suppressed post-fire recovery of ground layer vegetation due to grazing by feral herbivores. ImplicationsManagement that reduces the frequency of severe fires and the density of feral herbivores could disadvantage feral cat populations on Melville Island. A firm understanding of how threatening processes interact, and how they vary across landscapes with different environmental conditions, is critical for ensuring management success.
Context Small mammals are undergoing significant declines across the tropical savannas of northern Australia despite a lack of widespread land clearing. The causes of these declines remain unresolved, but a growing body of evidence suggests that the structural simplification of savannas, namely the degradation of under- and overstorey vegetation by frequent fires and high densities of exotic megaherbivores, is likely to be a significant contributing factor. Aim We sought to investigate how declining mammals use critical denning resources in high-biomass mesic savannas to help explain drivers of mammal decline in more open and less mesic areas and inform management priorities. Methods We fitted VHF/GPS collars to nine northern quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus), an Endangered scansorial predatory mammal, from a remnant population located on bauxite plateaus on Cape York Peninsula, Australia, to monitor their nocturnal movement patterns and den use over 1 month. Key results During this period, northern quolls exclusively denned in trees (either standing hollow trees or fallen logs). The most frequently used den trees tended to be larger, with pronounced trunk leans and multiple hollow entrances from 5 to 20 cm in diameter, whereas the most frequently used den logs tended to be longer and had more hollow entrances from 10 to 20 cm in diameter. All home ranges were confined to the high-biomass savanna habitat found on the bauxite plateaus, with males having a mean home range almost double the size of the mean female home range. Conclusions The reliance of this population of northern quolls on large hollow-bearing trees for shelter may explain the regional contraction of the northern quoll to high-biomass mesic savannas with an abundance of large trees. Implications These high-biomass savanna habitats, such as the bauxite plateaus found on the Cape York Peninsula, are likely to be critical for the persistence of the northern quoll, and should be appropriately protected, through management of fire and avoidance of clearing and logging.
This article proposes a pedagogical approach dedicated to help students develop personal ethical agency—the ability to make decisions that involve ethical dilemmas consistent with an individual's ethical standards and professional standards of practice. The approach presented involves a tripartite gathering of students, business executives, and faculty in discussions of cases embedded with ethical dilemmas. Sessions highlight ethical issues that closely correspond with core components from courses. The article provides a description of personal ethical agency, the developmental stages of the Walk the Talk program, and assessment of the program and concludes with plans for future program development and expansion.
Context The introduction of the cat (Felis catus) to Australia has been a key driver of the decline and extinction of the continent's endemic mammals. Currently, there is no clear long-term solution to controlling feral populations of cats at a landscape scale. As such, understanding how environmental conditions and habitat attributes can mediate the coexistence between introduced predators and native mammals can improve management outcomes for threatened species. Aim We sought to compare the differences in habitat use by feral cats and a remnant population of the endangered northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus) to understand what environmental variables allow these two mesopredators to coexist in tropical savanna of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Methods We deployed grids of motion-activated cameras three times per year over a 3-year period, across Eucalyptus tetrodonta-dominated plateaux known to be inhabited by feral cats and northern quolls. We modelled the spatial variation in the frequencies of detection of feral cats and northern quolls (referred to as 'habitat use'), as a function of biotic and abiotic environmental variables by using a generalised linear model for consistent variables and a generalised linear mixed-effect model for fluctuating variables. Key results Habitat use by feral cats was most frequent in areas with high fire frequencies and low tree basal area, whereas habitat use by northern quolls was most frequent in areas of high basal area of E. tetrodonta (a commonly used den tree species), topographic ruggedness, and long-unburnt savanna. Conclusions Frequent fires in tropical savanna promote habitat use by feral cats and can result in a reduction of critical habitat for northern quolls. Implications We postulate that remnant populations of northern quolls on Cape York Peninsula occur in less frequently burnt refugia, primarily on top of plateaux that support high-biomass tropical savanna dominated by E. tetrodonta. Our findings highlighted that threatened mammals can persist alongside introduced predators in tropical savanna but are dependent on the maintenance of structurally complex habitat.
Context The bourgeoning carbon economy is creating novel ways to incentivise conservation management activities that have the co-benefits of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and social inequality. Aim To estimate the monetary value of carbon credits that landowners could generate by reducing ecologically destructive feral populations of the Asian water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) in northern Australia. Methods First, we estimated buffalo enteric emissions based on the population structure of feral buffalo in northern Australia, and discounted the reduction of fire emissions due to the consumption of grassy fuel by feral buffalo. We then predicted the change in buffalo population size across the South Alligator River region of Kakadu National Park under four buffalo management scenarios: (1) no buffalo control; (2) low-intensity buffalo control; (3) moderate-intensity buffalo control; and (4) high-intensity buffalo control. We quantified the reduction of GHG emissions under the three buffalo control scenarios, relative to the scenario of no buffalo control, while discounting the GHG emissions that directly result from buffalo control actions (e.g. helicopter emissions). Key results All three buffalo control scenarios substantially reduced the estimated GHG emissions that would otherwise have been produced. The low-intensity buffalo control scenario was predicted to abate 790 513 t CO2-e over the 20-year simulation, worth USD15 076 085 (or USD753 804 year−1). Our high-intensity buffalo control scenario had the greatest reduction in GHG emissions, with a total net abatement of 913 231 t CO2-e, worth USD17 176 437 (or USD858 822 year−1). Conclusions The potential value of carbon credits generated by controlling feral buffalo populations in northern Australian savannas far exceeds the management costs. Implications The management of feral ruminants could be incentivised by the generation of carbon credits. Such management could simultaneously avoid GHG emissions, generate income for landowners and offer significant ecological benefits.
In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Band 204, S. 111109
Context Native mammals continue to suffer widespread and severe declines across northern Australia's tropical savannas. There is an increasing body of evidence that the primary driver of these declines is predation by feral cats (Felis catus) and that this is exacerbated by high-severity disturbance regimes (frequent high-intensity fires, and grazing and trampling by exotic megaherbivores) that simplify habitat, thereby increasing hunting efficiency. The large islands off the northern Australian coast – where some threats are either reduced or absent – provide a means of testing the conceptual model's predictions. Aims To compare the trajectory and distribution of native mammal populations on two large, adjacent islands with markedly different disturbance regimes. Methods In 2020 and 2021, we resurveyed 111 historical sites across the two largest of the Tiwi Islands, Bathurst Island (42 sites) and Melville Island (69 sites) that were previously surveyed between 2000 and 2002. The Melville Island sites had also been resurveyed in 2015. We used the same live trapping method used in 2000–2002, supplemented with camera trapping. Key results On Bathurst Island, feral cats are rare, and we found no significant decrease in native mammal trap success or species richness, and the threatened brush-tailed rabbit-rat (Conilurus penicillatus melibius) appears stable. Conversely, cats occurred at relatively high abundance on Melville Island, and there was a 52% decline in trap success, a 47% reduction in species richness, and a 93% decline in trap success for the brush-tailed rabbit-rat over the 20-year period. The highest decreases in native mammal abundance and richness were in areas that were frequently burnt and had higher activity of feral cats. In contrast, in the absence of cats on Bathurst Island, native mammal abundance increased in frequently burnt areas. Conclusions While Bathurst Island remains one of Australia's most important refuges for native mammals, neighbouring Melville Island is experiencing severe and ongoing mammal decline. We contend that this pattern primarily reflects the high abundance of cats on Melville Island compared to Bathurst Island. Implications Native mammal decline in northern Australian savannas is associated with abundant feral cats, but the relative contribution of disturbances in driving cat abundance remains less clear. An improved understanding of the constraints to feral cat populations in tropical savannas could enhance conservation management.