Similar Resources Research Articles

Sources of intraspecific variation in the isotopic niche of a semi-aquatic predator in a human-modified landscape.

Intraspecific variation modulates patterns of resource use by species, potentially affecting the structure and stability of food webs. In human-modified landscapes, habitat disturbance modifies trophic interactions and intraspecific niche variation, impacting population persistence. Here, we investigated the relationship of sex, ontogeny, and habitat factors with the trophic niche of Caiman crocodilus in an agricultural landscape. We evaluated temporal variation in the trophic niche parameters using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis from different body tissues. We found that caimans exploit the same carbon and nitrogen pools through time, with low isotopic variability between seasons, partly due to the slow isotope turnover rates of tissues in crocodilians. Conversely, the trophic niche of caimans varied across habitats, but with no evidence of a difference between natural and anthropogenic habitats. It apparently results from the influence of habitat suitability, connectivity, and caiman movements during the foraging. Our findings highlight the broader niches of juvenile caimans relative to adults, possibly in response of territorialism and opportunistic foraging strategy. Although using similar resources, females had a larger niche than males, probably associated with foraging strategies during nesting. Considering the sex and body size categories, caimans occupied distinct isotopic regions in some habitats, indicating apparent niche segregation. Ontogenetic trophic shifts in the isotopes (δ13C and δ15N) depended on sex, leading to resource partitioning that can potentially reduce intraspecific competition. Decision-makers and stakeholders should consider the trophic dynamics of sex and body size groups for the sustainable management and conservation of caiman populations, which implies in the maintenance of wetland habitats and landscape heterogeneity in the Formoso River floodplain.

Development of a consumer involvement strategy for a small university-based musculoskeletal research centre.

To develop a Consumer Involvement Strategy which adheres to best practice recommendations and is feasible to implement in a small musculoskeletal research centre funded solely by external grants. The Strategy development involved five collaborative and iterative stages: (1) conceptualisation and initial consultation; (2) formation of the Consumer Involvement Strategy Action Group; (3) defining the scope and developing the strategy; (4) consultation and refinement; and (5) presentation and implementation. The final three stages were overseen by a Consumer Involvement Strategy Action Group comprising two post-doctoral research fellows, a PhD student representative, and two consumers (people with osteoarthritis), all with experience in consumer involvement activities in research. The final strategy aligns with best practice recommendations and includes five unique levels of consumer involvement that were devised to encompass the wide variety of consumer involvement activities across the research centre. It includes a policy document with five strategic aims, each supported by an implementation plan, and includes a suite of resources for researchers and consumers to support its application. The Consumer Involvement Strategy and its described development may serve as a template for other research teams facing similar resource constraints, both at a national and international level.

Functional neurological disorder: A common reason for a neurology inpatient referral.

In 2021, the European Academy of Neurology's training requirements were updated to include functional neurological disorder (FND) as a core topic for the first time. To reinforce these changes, we aimed to understand the proportion of inpatients (in non-neurology settings) who are diagnosed with FND. We prospectively collected data on diagnoses made after inpatient ward reviews from neurology trainees at three tertiary neurology centres in Scotland from April to September 2021. We assessed healthcare utilization data for patients with a diagnosis of FND, epilepsy and epileptic seizures, or a neuroinflammatory disorder over the preceding 12 months. There were 437 inpatient reviews for 424 patients by 13 trainees. The largest single diagnosis was FND (n = 80, 18%), followed by epilepsy (n = 64, 14%), primary headache disorder (n = 40, 9%) and neuroinflammatory disorders (n = 28, 6%). There was an uncertain diagnosis for 48 reviews (11%). Compared to patients with epilepsy or neuroinflammatory disorders, patients with FND had a similar number of admissions (2 vs. 2 vs. 1) and brain/spine imaging studies (2 vs. 1 vs. 2). In Scotland, FND was the most common diagnosis made after a request for an inpatient review by a neurologist from another department in the hospital. Patients with FND have similar health resource needs to those with other common neurological disorders when they present to hospitals with tertiary neurology centres. This data supports the inclusion of FND as a core curriculum topic in neurology training.

SPRC19: A Database of State Policy Responses to COVID-19 in the United States

SPRC19 is a new database that seeks to capture a wide range of state policy actions in response to COVID-19 in the United States. Since March 2020 we have monitored state governments’ and multi-state associations’ websites for executive orders, agency rules, new legislation, and court decisions. We categorize each policy action into one of 206 distinct policies, then document the branch of government, source document, announcement date, implementation date, and expiration date (if applicable). We also record whether the action represents the introduction of a new policy or the expansion or contraction of an existing policy. The current release of SPRC19, v3.0, captures over 13,000 distinct policy actions through April 2020, which constitutes thousands more actions than similar resources over the same time period.

Costs and Resource Utilization of People with Stable Heart Failure and Insomnia: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

ABSTRACT Objectives Nearly half of patients with chronic heart failure (HF) report insomnia symptoms. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of CBT-I versus HF self-management on healthcare costs and resource utilization among patients with stable chronic HF who participated in a clinical trial of the effects of CBT-I compared to HF self-management education (attention control) over 1 year. Methods We measured resource utilization as self-reported (medical record review) physician office visits, emergency department visits, and inpatient admissions at 3-month intervals for 1 year after enrollment. Costs were estimated by applying price weights to visits and adding self-reported out-of-pocket and indirect costs. Univariate comparisons were made of resource utilization and costs between CBT-I and the HF self-management group. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to model costs, controlling for covariates. Results The sample included 150 patients [79 CBT-I; 71 self-management (M age = 62 + 13 years)]. The CBT-I group had 4.2 inpatient hospitalizations vs 4.6 for the self-management group (p = .40). There were 13.1 outpatient visits, in the CBT-I compared with 15.4 outpatient visits (p-value range 0.39–0.81) for the self-management group. Total costs were not significantly different in univariate or ($7,813 CBT-I vs. $7,538 self-management), p = .96) or multivariable analyses. Conclusions Among patients with both HF and insomnia, CBT-I and HF self-management were associated with similar resource utilization and total costs. Additional research is needed to estimate the value of CBT-I relative to usual care and other treatments for insomnia in patients with HF.

Microsurgery for drug resistance epilepsy due to temporal lobe lesions in a resource limited condition: a cross-sectional study.

The study was a retrospective and prospective cross-sectional study of 35 cases of drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy. All patients were operated on by the primary author between May 2018 and September 2022. The study evaluated various factors including clinical characteristics, electroencephalogram, magnetic resonance imaging, surgical outcomes, and histopathology. The success rate of the surgeries (74.3%) is similar to those reported in high-income countries. 51.4% underwent selective amygdalohippocampectomy for cases that localized to the mesial temporal lobe. Lateral/neocortical lesions underwent lesionectomy (48.6%). Our study found a complication rate of 17.1%: meningitis (8.5%), trainset focal paralysis (2.9%), and soft tissue infection (5.7%). There were no mortalities. The article showcases an international collaborative effort that demonstrates the possibility of providing highly effective and safe surgical care for temporal lobe epilepsy even in low-resource environments. The authors hope that this model can be replicated in other areas with similar resource limitations.

Environmental responses of fruiting fungal communities are phylogenetically structured

Through their ephemeral reproductive structures (fruiting bodies), ectomycorrhizal forest soil fungi provide a resource for a plethora of organisms. Thus, resolving what biotic and abiotic factors determine the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies is fundamental for understanding the dynamics of forest trophic networks. While the influence of abiotic factors such as moisture and temperature on fungal fruiting are relatively well established, little is known about how these processes interact with the evolutionary history of fungal species to determine when, where, and in which abundance fungal fruiting bodies will emerge. A specific knowledge gap relates to whether species' responses to their environment are phylogenetically structured. Here, we ask whether related fungal taxa respond similarly to climatic factors and forest habitat characteristics, and whether such correlated responses will affect the assembly of fungal fruiting communities. To resolve these questions, we fitted joint species distribution models combining data on the species composition and abundance of fungal fruiting bodies, environmental variation, and phylogenetic relationships among fungal taxa. Our results show that both site‐level forest characteristics (dominant tree species and forest age) and climatic factors related to phenology (effective heat sum) greatly influence the occurrence and abundance of fruiting bodies. More importantly, while different fungal species responded unequally to their shared environment, there was a strong phylogenetic signal in their responses, so that related fungal species tended to fruit under similar environmental conditions. Thus, not only are fruiting bodies short‐lived and patchily distributed, but the availability of similar resources will be further aggregated in time and space. These strong constraints on resource availability for fungus‐associated taxa highlight the potential of fungus‐based networks as a model system for studies on the ecology and evolution of resource–consumer relations in ephemeral systems of high spatiotemporal patchiness.

In Case You Haven't Heard…

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has an alcohol policy information system that is a deep trove of information on state policies. Recently ADAW noticed that it includes cannabis. We asked NIAAA director George F. Koob, Ph.D., why this is. After all, cannabis is the province of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the two agencies — both research agencies — have in the past battled over turf. Here is his response: “The primary goal of the Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) is to encourage and facilitate research on the effects and effectiveness of alcohol‐related public policies. Inclusion of information on state policies addressing recreational use of cannabis is consistent with this objective. While some policy researchers hypothesize that easier access to marijuana will lead people to substitute marijuana for alcohol, others suggest easier access will simply lead to greater co‐use. Combining alcohol and marijuana could increase the risk of alcohol‐impaired traffic crashes and compound the impact of alcohol on adolescent brain development. As such, it is important for researchers studying alcohol policy to be able to consider changes in policies governing access to marijuana. In the absence of a similar data resource providing authoritative, detailed, and comparable cross‐sectional and longitudinal data on policies addressing [the] adult recreational use of cannabis, the APIS platform provides an effective way to ensure that alcohol policy researchers can incorporate appropriate cannabis policy information in their studies.”

Occupational resource profiles for an addressee orientation in occupational health management: a segmentation analysis.

In order to make sustainable decisions in precision prevention and health promotion, it is important to adequately assess people's demands and resources at work. To reach them in an addressee-oriented way, a segmentation of employers and employees based on occupational resources is a promising option. We identified profiles based on personal and perceived organizational resources. Furthermore, we used job demands for profile descriptions to obtain a deeper understanding of the profiles, characterizing people with similar occupational resources. Personal occupational resources (occupational health literacy and self-efficacy) and perceived organizational resources (job decision latitude and participation in health at work) were assessed among employers and employees (n = 828) in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Germany. Job demands, socioeconomic status, and hierarchy levels in the company were used for further profile descriptions. A six-profile solution fitted best to the data based on cluster and profile analyses. One profile was characterized by above-average occupational resources, and another profile was characterized by below-average resources. The other four profiles showed that the individual and perceived organizational resources contrasted. Either organizational resources such as job decision latitude existed and personal resources were not highly developed or people had high individual motivation but few possibilities to participate in health at work. People with medium or high job demands as well as people with low socioeconomic status were most frequently in below-average resource profiles. Employers with high hierarchy levels were overrepresented in the above-average profiles with high organizational resources. Following the segmentation of the addressees, organizations might be supported in identifying needs and areas for prevention and health promotion. Interventions can be optimally developed, tailored, and coordinated through a deeper understanding of job demands and resources. Especially employees with low socioeconomic status and high job demands might profit from an addressee-orientated approach based on resource profiles. For example, employees obtain an overview of their occupational resource profile to recognize the development potential for safe and healthy behavior at work. Follow-up research should be used to examine how this feedback to employers and employees is implemented and how it affects the sustainability of tailored interventions.

Ibn Malak's Resources in "Sharh Al-Wiqaya": The books of Purity and Prayer

This research aims to identify the scholar Abdul Lateef bin Abdul Aziz, who is known as Ibn Malak (died. 801 AH). His most important resource in his book known as "Sharh Al-Wiqaya", where his proficiency appears in deriving the most important resources of the "Hanafi" doctrine from the jurisprudential, linguistic and principles of jurisprudence books. The importance of this study increases for specialists in the study of Al- Hanafi jurisprudence in particular and Islamic jurisprudence in general if we know that he included in this manuscript texts of books that have been lost, or were unknown .
 He also unleashed a number of resources without restricting them to an author, even though in the doctrine there are a number of similar works in terms of the title. Ibn Malik had more of a transfer from specific books, and he was limited in transferring from the other to easy places. He relied on the quotation of the late writers more the applicants. Ibn Malak referred to more than sixty books in the chapter of Purification and Prayers only. Then this study came to introduce these books and show the unknown, and identify the similar resources, and what is meant by them.

How generalization relates to the exploration-exploitation tradeoff

It is known that animals foraging in the wild must balance their levels of exploitation and exploration so as to maximize resource consumption. This usually manifests as an area-restricted search strategy, such that animals tend to exploit environmental patches and make long excursions between patches. This optimal foraging strategy, however, relies on an underlying assumption: nearby locations yield similar resources. Here, we offer an explanation as to how animals utilize this assumption, which implicitly involves generalization. We also describe the computational mechanisms hypothesized to incorporate factors of exploitation, exploration, and generalization, thus, providing a more holistic picture of animal search strategies. Moreover, we connect this foraging behavior to cognition in general. As such, we suggest that cognitive processes, particularly those involved in sequential decision-making, reuse the computational principles grafted into neural activity by the evolution of optimal foraging. We speculate as to what neurobiological substrates may be using area-restricted search, as well as how a model of exploitation, exploration, and generalization can inform psychopathology.

Intraspecific trait variation as a mechanism of coexistence of congeneric blueberry (Vaccinium) species after forest harvesting

Understorey shrubs of boreal forests grow vigorously after canopy removing disturbance such as clearcutting and fire and dominate the post-disturbance community. Many of these dominant shrubs are morphologically and phylogenetically closely related. How do they coexist despite having similar traits and resource needs? One way the coexisting plants may avoid competition is by niche differentiation that may alleviate the negative effects of competition due to high niche overlap. We studied two blueberry species, Vaccinium angustifolium and V. myrtilloides often found in proximity to one another after forest harvesting to test the hypothesis that coexisting congeneric species differentiate their resource acquisition and use through variation in their functional traits (niche differentiation). Discovering the coexistence mechanisms of Vaccinium spp. that flourish after forest harvesting and fire is important from both theoretical and applied perspectives. Vaccinium spp. are dominant shrubs after forest harvesting and fire and constitute a significant food source for wildlife and health-conscious consumers and are also of cultural significance to indigenous peoples. From three post-harvest forest sites in northwestern Ontario, we measured cover of Vaccinium spp. in 81 1 × 1 m quadrats where they occurred alone and together. We then excavated 103 ramets of the two Vaccinium spp. occurring alone and together after measuring three habitat variables (organic matter depth, soil moisture and soil temperature) in the immediate surroundings of the excavated plants. We measured five functional traits: height, canopy diameter, specific leaf area, specific stem density and specific root length. Using these data, we calculated functional hypervolumes (niche space occupancy) of each species occurring alone and together. We also calculated probabilistic niche overlap between the two species as well as their reaction norms to habitat variables. We found that species hypervolumes changed in size, and the probability and degree of overlap between the two Vaccinium spp. changed when occurring alone and co-occurring. Linear regression showed no significant effect of habitat factors on traits. We detected high intraspecific variation in some traits leading to shifts in hypervolumes when they co-occurred. We conclude that at fine spatial scales (homogeneous habitats, open canopy condition) individual trait variation allows for niche complementarity promoting coexistence among these important, early succession, closely related species.

Smart Markets for Real-Time Allocation of Multiproduct Resources: The Case of Shared Electric Vehicles

Motivated by the deep transformation of the transportation sector toward electric and shared mobility, this research develops a decision support system that enables real-time allocation of shared electric vehicles (SEVs) to either the rental market or aggregated as a virtual power plant to the electricity market. The multipurposing of SEVs beyond the traditional scope of mobility services can boost utilization and profitability for fleet operators while also facilitating the integration of variable rate renewable energy sources. This SEV setting embodies the problem of real-time multiproduct resource allocation via smart markets. We develop an approach that leverages highly digitalized real-time markets and intelligent decision making to enable dynamic multiproduct resource allocation. The tool continuously evaluates market attractiveness and strategically places iterative bids on the resource owner’s behalf until all resources have been committed for a specific period. Our key contribution is to provide a blueprint for similar multi-product resource allocation settings, and demonstrating its efficacy in the domain of SEV fleets by developing tailored analytics and machine learning-based solutions.

A Classification and Regression Tree Analysis for Prediction of Surgical Patient Lengths of Stay

Healthcare demand is growing in Australia and across the world. In Australia, the healthcare system comprises a mix of private and public organizations, such as hospitals, clinics, and aged care facilities. The Australian healthcare system is quite affordable and accessible because a large proportion of the expenditure, around 68%, is funded by the Australian government. The healthcare expenditure in 2015-16 was AUD 170.4 billion which was 10.0% of the GDP. Soaring healthcare costs and growing demand for services are increasing the pressure on the sustainability of the government-funded healthcare system. To be sustainable, we need to be more efficient in delivering healthcare services. We can schedule the care delivery process optimally and subsequently improve the efficiency of the system if demand for services is well known. However, there is a randomness in demand for services, and it is a cause of inefficiency in the healthcare delivery process. Soaring healthcare costs and the growing demand for services require us to use healthcare resources more efficiently. Randomness in resource requirements makes the care delivery process less efficient. Our aim is to reduce the uncertainty in patients’ resource requirements, and we achieve that objective by classifying patients into similar resource user groups. The conventional random forest., k-nearest neighbourhood (KNN) methods were resulted in poor classification, prediction performance. In this work, we develop a two-stage classification model to classify patients into lower variability resource user groups by using electronic patient record. There are various statistical tools for classifying patients into lower variability resource user groups. However, classification and regression tree (CART) analysis is a more suitable method for analyzing healthcare data because it has some distinct features. For example, it can handle the interaction between predictor variables naturally, it is nonparametric in nature, and it is relatively insensitive to the curse of dimensionality.

A case study on marmatite- pyrite/pyrrhotite selective flotation with two-step pulp regulation

Zinc occupies a vital position in modern industrial production, and zinc metal is mainly extracted from marmatite or sphalerite. Marmatite or sphalerite is often associated with pyrite and pyrrhotite in natural polymetallic sulfide deposits. Therefore, how to well achieve the selective separation of marmatite or sphalerite from associated pyrite and pyrrhotite is an important issue, because it is directly related to the efficient and sustainable utilization of zinc-bearing sulfide mineral resources. In this paper, a systematic research taking the selective separation of marmatite from high-sulfur sulfide ores as its core, was conducted. The results confirmed that pulp redox potential (Eh) as well as dissolved oxygen (DO) dominated the selective separation of marmatite from associated pyrite and pyrrhotite, and the Zn recovery and Zn grade of zinc concentrates could be greatly improved by controlling Eh. As a result, an effective and feasible operating mechanism with two-step Eh regulation was first established. The findings are expected to help scholars understand the marmatite-pyrite/pyrrhotite (Zn-S) selective flotation better, favor the beneficiation of high-sulfur polymetallic sulfide ores in study or practice, and provide important inspirations for the theoretical research or practical utilization on other similar sulfide resources, especially those containing pyrrhotite.

A powerful partnership: researchers and patients working together to develop a patient-facing summary of clinical trial outcome data.

Availability of easy-to-understand patient-reported outcome (PRO) trial data may help individuals make more informed healthcare decisions. Easily interpretable, patient-centric PRO data summaries and visualizations are therefore needed. This three-stage study explored graphical format preferences, understanding, and interpretability of clinical trial PRO data presented to people with prostate cancer (PC). A 7-day online survey exploring people with PC's preferences for different PRO data presentations (stage 1; n = 30) informed development of a draft plain-language resource sheet containing PRO data. After refining for clarity during cognitive debriefing interviews (stage 2; n = 18), the final resource sheet was circulated to people with PC for broader feedback (stage 3; n = 45). Although participants expressed preferences for certain graphical formats (pie charts and bar charts), preference did not always associate with interpretability and overall message clarity. Iterative development (stages 1 and 2) led to a final resource sheet, which 91.1% of participants in stage 3 considered useful and informative, and 88.9% expressed interest in receiving similar resources in the future. Findings demonstrate PRO data are relevant to people with PC and highlights that targeted resource sheets can support patient-clinician discussions. Appropriate graphical formatting and use of plain-language text is essential for conveying interpretable PRO data. Data visualization preferences are context dependent. Resource sheets summarizing clinical trial PRO data can be helpful for decision-making in PC. Researchers and patients can work together to develop clear, relevant, sensitive, and understandable resource sheets, which equally consider patient priorities as well as those of scientists.

Dense Dilated Multi-Scale Supervised Attention-Guided Network for histopathology image segmentation

Over the last couple of decades, the introduction and proliferation of whole-slide scanners led to increasing interest in the research of digital pathology. Although manual analysis of histopathological images is still the gold standard, the process is often tedious and time consuming. Furthermore, manual analysis also suffers from intra- and interobserver variability. Separating structures or grading morphological changes can be difficult due to architectural variability of these images. Deep learning techniques have shown great potential in histopathology image segmentation that drastically reduces the time needed for downstream tasks of analysis and providing accurate diagnosis. However, few algorithms have clinical implementations. In this paper, we propose a new deep learning model Dense Dilated Multiscale Supervised Attention-Guided (D2MSA) Network for histopathology image segmentation that makes use of deep supervision coupled with a hierarchical system of novel attention mechanisms. The proposed model surpasses state-of-the-art performance while using similar computational resources. The performance of the model has been evaluated for the tasks of gland segmentation and nuclei instance segmentation, both of which are clinically relevant tasks to assess the state and progress of malignancy. Here, we have used histopathology image datasets for three different types of cancer. We have also performed extensive ablation tests and hyperparameter tuning to ensure the validity and reproducibility of the model performance. The proposed model is available at www.github.com/shirshabose/D2MSA-Net.

Integration of Managed Aquifer Recharge into the Water Supply System in the Algarve Region, Portugal

The Algarve region of Portugal is experiencing severe water scarcity with existing water supplies insufficient to meet demand, with limited resilience to drought. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) can provide intermediate storage and bridge the gap between water availability and demand, with success depending on the water available and the aquifer capacity to accept and store the water. We present the results of a regional study quantifying both these aspects to estimate the regional potential for MAR. Our results demonstrate that MAR can comprise 10% of the total water demand of the region (24 Mm3/yr) using water that is not otherwise captured, with quality that meets the requirements of the Groundwater Directive. MAR can replace 15 Mm3/yr of surface water used in the public irrigation perimeters and 9 Mm3/yr can be used to develop and maintain a strategic groundwater resource in the aquifers of the Central Algarve. Although climate change is predicted to result in an 8–13% decrease in MAR recharge, this can be addressed by incrementally increasing MAR design capacity. MAR has similar water resource benefits to the planned major infrastructure projects (desalination and River Guadiana abstraction), with reduced environmental impacts and lower costs than almost all feasible alternatives. We conclude that MAR is an important measure to increase water supply security and drought resilience in the Algarve region.

Trophic chain of the pelagic thresher, Alopias pelagicus, in the Southeastern Pacific Ocean: An approach through stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen

The pelagic thresher, Alopias pelagicus, plays a vital role in coastal and marine ecosystems as a top predator that feeds on species from low trophic levels. It is a commercial species relevant in Ecuador. The feeding chain of A. pelagicus was analyzed through carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes in the Southeast Pacific Ocean. Considering the lack of studies regarding this topic, this would elucidate the flow of nutrients and energy from the base up to this predator. Its diet composition included 19 prey species, out of which 10 were cephalopods and nine Osteichthyes. The most relevant species were the squid Ommastrephes bartramii, Dosidicus gigas, Stenoteuthis oualaniensis, and the fish Merluccius gayi peruanus. The pelagic thresher is a carnivore predator, and its prey species belong to tertiary and quaternary trophic levels. The carbon and nitrogen male isotopic ratios were similar to those of females, as were immature and mature organisms. This suggests that this species feeds in oceanic regions of low depths and could be exploiting and sharing an area with similar feeding resources. According to the mixing models, squids were the most important prey group, in which the squid Ommastrephes bartramii contributed most to its diet. Furthermore, this shark was characterized as a specialist predator with a trophic overlap by sex and maturity stages.

One jurisdiction away from a healthier ecosystem? The impacts of jurisdictional zones on the health of large marine ecosystems

The Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) divides the world ocean into different maritime zones. This division has led to situations where similar marine resources may be subject to different legal frameworks and requirements, even if they are, in ecological and geographical terms, part of the same Large Marine Ecosystem (LME). At least according to the environmental management literature, the mismatch between jurisdictional (maritime) zones and ecosystem boundaries is inherently harmful to marine ecosystems. This paper tries to validate this narrative by applying the Ocean Health Index (OHI) in relation to LMEs according to their ‘jurisdictional situation.’ Each of the five jurisdictional situations identified has different standings vis-à-vis UNCLOS. Thus, associating this concept with the OHI framework serves as the foundation to analyse whether or not the (mis)match of jurisdictional zones and LME boundaries has any measurable effects on an ecosystem’s health. This paper settles on two conclusions: one idealistic and one realistic. Idealistically, empirical evidence suggests that the concept of jurisdictional zones is incoherent from an ecological perspective, since they represent a risk factor for ecosystem-based management. This is concluded because ecosystems in jurisdictional situations with fewer jurisdictional zone intersections tend to receive better ocean health scores on average compared to their counterparts in other situations. However, realistically speaking, the same evidence is simultaneously inconclusive in validating the literature’s narrative. This is concluded considering that no direct correlation between the factors ‘fewer jurisdictional borders’ and ‘healthier marine ecosystems’ was attested; most likely, due to a vast number of cofounding biophysical, social-economic, and institutional considerations.