Vulnerable Life Research Articles

Terrestrial dispersal of invasive signal crayfish during vulnerable life stages

1. Aquatic invertebrates commonly disperse between waterbodies by flight, though some decapods can emigrate from the water and walk overland.2. The signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus, Dana) is a highly invasive species that can survive for days to weeks out of water, though it is unclear to what extent vulnerable life stages, such as ovigerous females or juvenile crayfish, terrestrially emigrate. Understanding this behaviour is important to consider during the management of crayfish stocks, since a single ovigerous female could potentially introduce hundreds of hatchlings to a new waterbody, which could themselves disperse overland.3. Here, in a laboratory study, we examined the terrestrial emigration tendency of juvenile crayfish and compared the terrestrial emigration behaviour and overland walking speed of ovigerous and non-ovigerous females.4. Size had a significant influence on juvenile crayfish terrestrial emigration tendency, where only those larger than 16.6 mm (carapace length) left the water. Ovigerous and non-ovigerous female signal crayfish showed no significant difference in terrestrial emigration tendency nor overland walking speed.5. This is the first study to directly examine the terrestrial emigration behaviour of crayfish during these different life stages. These findings highlight the importance of considering animal behaviour during management strategies.

Postretirement Life Satisfaction and Financial Vulnerability: The Moderating Role of Control.

This article examines changes in life satisfaction around retirement exits for those with varying preretirement incomes, testing whether constraints on personal control and control over finances moderate the relationship between retiring and preretirement income. This longitudinal study draws data from the 2004-2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study to examine changes in life satisfaction pre- versus postretirement for three groups (the poor/near poor, financially vulnerable, and financially stable) of full-time workers aged 51-87 years (N = 970), and a subset (N = 334) who fully retire over a 4-year period. Controlling for baseline life satisfaction, health, job/demographic characteristics, and social engagement, ordinary least squares regression results show financially stable retirees report higher levels of postretirement life satisfaction relative to their full-time working counterparts, whereas the poor/near poor and the financially vulnerable report similar life satisfaction to those who continue working full time. Constraints on personal control and control over finances moderate postretirement life satisfaction for the financially vulnerable. Results suggest full retirement predicts improved life satisfaction only for those most advantaged financially. Financially vulnerable older workers may adjust more effectively to retirement if they have access to resources that facilitate greater control over their lives.

How does parental environment influence the potential for adaptation to global change?

Parental environments are regularly shown to alter the mean fitness of offspring, but their impacts on the genetic variation for fitness, which predicts adaptive capacity and is also measured on offspring, are unclear. Consequently, how parental environments mediate adaptation to environmental stressors, like those accompanying global change, is largely unknown. Here, using an ecologically important marine tubeworm in a quantitative-genetic breeding design, we tested how parental exposure to projected ocean warming alters the mean survival, and genetic variation for survival, of offspring during their most vulnerable life stage under current and projected temperatures. Offspring survival was higher when parent and offspring temperatures matched. Across offspring temperatures, parental exposure to warming altered the distribution of additive genetic variance for survival, making it covary across current and projected temperatures in a way that may aid adaptation to future warming. Parental exposure to warming also amplified nonadditive genetic variance for survival, suggesting that compatibilities between parental genomes may grow increasingly important under future warming. Our study shows that parental environments potentially have broader-ranging effects on adaptive capacity than currently appreciated, not only mitigating the negative impacts of global change but also reshaping the raw fuel for evolutionary responses to it.

Sårbarhedens overvindelse og styrkens fascination:

The first part of the article demonstrates how the concept of mental resilience has developed from the 1970s to the 2010s, spreading from the field of developmental psychopathology to a wide range of psychological and psychotherapeutic disciplines. Today, there are many varied definitions of mental resilience, ranging from a relation to the concept of mental vulnerability to a related concept of mental strength. The second part of the article demonstrates how the current popularisation of the idea of individual resilience is associated with a social and cultural problematisation of the vulnerable life as well as with a psychopolitical and governmental focus on enhancing the mental capacity of citizens.

The contested concept of vulnerability – a literature review

ABSTRACTThe concept of vulnerability is widely used in the social sciences as well as in policy making, health and social care services and in social work, referring to a variety of groups or individuals, but it has rarely been theoretically defined or analysed. This article provides a literature review on how vulnerability has been used and defined in academic, peer-reviewed articles published in international social science journals between 2000 and 2016. The aim is to analyse and clarify critically the concept for social work research. The article analyses themes and topics connected to vulnerability, how gender is related to vulnerability and how vulnerability is conceptualised in these articles. The analysis showed that there is an important critical commentary on the concept, but only a few efforts to specify, theoretically analyse, reconceptualise or use the concept in an innovative way. The authors suggest that in social work research, instead of vulnerable groups or individuals we should focus on vulnerable life situations, and the role of the welfare services in reducing but possibly also (re)producing vulnerability. It is also important to recognise the temporal, situational, relational, and structural nature of vulnerability.

Mobile Solidarities and Precariousness at City Plaza: Beyond Vulnerable and Disposable Lives

This article explores how mobile solidarities are forged through precariousness at City Plaza, a disused hotel and collective refugee accommodation space in Athens, which has become a notorious site of resistance in the midst of the so-called “European migration crisis.” Drawing on qualitative research carried out during 2016, the article explores how solidarities are created at this space in terms that not only challenge the abandonment of lives rendered disposable through camps, but also the rendering of lives vulnerable through humanitarian accommodation initiatives that seek to integrate those most in need of protection. While pointing to the significance of critical analyses of abandoned and disposable lives in the context of current migratory conditions across Europe, the article highlights the limitations of a frame of vulnerability specifically. It draws on the work of Judith Butler to argue that the relations of solidarity which are forged at City Plaza are better understood in terms of a form of precarity or precariousness that is shared, yet unevenly distributed.

Discrimination of juvenile snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) growth and nutrition via metabolomic GC-MS methods

Many fish species utilise nursery habitats to enhance survival and growth through vulnerable juvenile life stages. Nursery habitats, however, are often threatened by a variety of stressors, and it is likely that some nursery habitats or locations are more degraded than others. If degraded nursery habitats impact juvenile fish growth or other aspects of fish physiology, a tool to detect this would have great utility in prioritising habitat conservation efforts. We assessed the ability of metabolic profiling to discriminate hatchery reared snapper (Chrysophrys auratus) that had differing food availability and growth rates. Metabolomic profiles of snapper from the different sample groups (i.e. different combinations of fast or slow growth rate and high and low food availability) had high levels of discrimination. This difference was largely driven by an unknown metabolite, which we suspect is a dipeptide proline compound. It is unclear if this unknown metabolite was specific to the results of the present study, or may have more generic value as a bio-indicator of nursery habitat quality. The next step is to analyse the metabolomic profiles of juvenile snapper from a gradient of locations with low to high nursery habitat quality and assess the ability of metabolomic methods to discriminate individual fish from across this more realistic setting.

Juvenile Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) utilization distributions in the Gulf of Alaska

BackgroundA utilization distribution quantifies the temporal and spatial probability of space use for individuals or populations. These patterns in movement arise from individuals’ internal state and from their response to the external environment, and thus can provide insights for assessing factors associated with the management of threatened populations. The Western Distinct Population Segment of the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) has declined to approximately 20% of levels encountered 40 years ago. At the height of the decline, juvenile survival appeared to be depressed and currently there is evidence that juvenile mortality due to predation may be constraining recovery in some regions. Therefore, our objectives were to identify what spaces are biologically important to juvenile Steller sea lions in the Kenai Fjords and Prince William Sound regions of the Gulf of Alaska.MethodsWe examined geospatial location data from juvenile sea lions tagged between 2000 and 2014 (n = 84) and derived individual and pooled-population utilization distributions (UDs) from their movements. Core areas were defined from the UDs using an individual-based approach; this quantitatively confirmed that all individuals in our sample exhibited concentrated use within their home range (95% UD). Finally, we explored if variation in UD characteristics were associated with sex, season, age, or region.ResultsWe found evidence that individual juvenile home ranges were region and sex-specific, with males having larger home ranges on average. Core space characteristics were also sex-specific, and exhibited seasonal patterns of reduced size, increased proximity to haulouts, and increased intensity of use in the summer, but only in the Kenai Fjords-Gulf of Alaska region.ConclusionsThis study highlights the areas of biological importance during this vulnerable life history stage, and the demographic, seasonal, and spatial factors associated with variation in movement patterns for a marine mesopredator. This can be useful information for promoting species recovery, and for future efforts to understand ecological patterns such as predator-prey interactions.

Potential impact of effects on reproductive attributes induced by herbicides on a plant community.

Current herbicide risk assessment guidelines for nontarget terrestrial plants require testing effects on young, vulnerable life stages (i.e., seedling emergence [and subsequent growth] and vegetative vigor [growth and dry wt]) but not directly on the reproduction of plants. However, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has proposed that effects on reproduction might be considered when evaluating the potential effects on plants. We adapted the plant community model for grassland (IBC-grass) to give insight into the current debate on the sensitivity of reproductive versus vegetative endpoints in ecological risk assessment. In an extensive sensitivity analysis of this model, we compared plant attributes potentially affected by herbicides and the consequences for long-term plant population dynamics and plant diversity. This evaluation was implemented by reducing reproductive as well as vegetative endpoints by certain percentages (e.g., 10-90%) as a theoretical assumption. Plant mortality and seed sterility (i.e., inability of seeds to germinate) were the most sensitive attributes. Our results indicated that effects on seed production at off-field exposure rates must be very strong to have an impact on the risk assessment. Otherwise, effects on seed production are compensated for by the soil seed bank. The present study highlights the usefulness of community level modeling studies to support regulators in their decisions on the appropriate risk assessment endpoints and provides confidence in their assessments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:1707-1722. © 2018 SETAC.

Diel movements of the blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) in a Caribbean nursery

The blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus) is a common coastal species in tropical and subtropical waters around the world. To examine the fine-scale movement ecology of this species in a Caribbean nursery, 17 neonate blacktip sharks were acoustically tagged in May, 2012 and tracked for one year in Coral Bay, St John, USVI. By quantifying linear movement and shifts in position from a fixed Inner harbor location, we identified a diel movement pattern where blacktip sharks spend daylight hours within core habitat of Inner Coral Harbor and move each night to the central and outer portions of the Bay, a linear shift of 174–934 m. When compared to standard home range calculations applied to the overall movement data, these nightly positions were outside of the 95% activity space and, therefore, undetected using traditional space utilization methods, despite their predictable daily occurrence. Cluster analysis and nonmetric multidimensional scaling indicated distinct movement periods and locations: daytime (sun up) within Inner Coral Harbor; nighttime (sun down) in the center of the Bay; and brief periods approximately six hours after sunset at the mouth of the Bay. This diel shift in habitat use is likely associated with nocturnal foraging because it coincides with similar shifts in potential prey species. Habitat and resource management that incorporates the blacktip shark movements described herein is critical to the protection of these vulnerable life stages. The findings of this paper advance the understanding of blacktip shark behavior and acoustic telemetry experimental design.

Evidence establishing a link between prenatal and early-life stress and asthma development.

The objective of this review is to provide an update on our evolving understanding of the effects of stress in pregnancy and during early development on the onset of asthma-related phenotypes across childhood, adolescence, and into early adulthood. Accumulating evidence over the past 2 decades has established that prenatal and early-life psychological stress and stress correlates (e.g., maternal anxiety or depression) increase the risk for childhood respiratory disorders. Recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses including numerous prospective epidemiological and case-control studies substantiate a significant effect of prenatal stress and stress in early childhood on the development of wheeze, asthma, and other atopic-related disorders (eczema and allergic rhinitis), with many studies showing an exposure-response relationship. Offspring of both sexes are susceptible to perinatal stress, but effects differ. The impact of stress on child wheeze/asthma can also be modified by exposure timing. Moreover, coexposure to prenatal stress can enhance the effect of chemical stressors, such as prenatal traffic-related air pollution, on childhood respiratory disease risk. Understanding complex interactions among exposure dose, timing, child sex, and concurrent environmental exposures promises to more fully characterize stress effects and identify susceptible subgroups. Although the link between perinatal stress and childhood asthma-related phenotypes is now well established, pathways by which stress predisposes children to chronic respiratory disorders are not as well delineated. Mechanisms central to the pathophysiology of wheeze/asthma and lung growth and development overlap and involve a cascade of events that include disrupted immune, neuroendocrine, and autonomic function as well as oxidative stress. Altered homeostatic functioning of these integrated systems during development can enhance vulnerability to asthma and altered lung development. Mechanistic studies that more comprehensively assess biomarkers reflecting alterations across interrelated stress response systems and associated regulatory processes, in both pregnant women and young children, could be highly informative. Leveraging high-throughput systems-wide technologies to include epigenomics (e.g., DNA methylation, microRNAs), transcriptomics, and microbiomics as well as integrated multiomics are needed to advance this field of science. Understanding stress-induced physiological changes occurring during vulnerable life periods that contribute to chronic respiratory disease risk could lead to the development of preventive strategies and novel therapeutic interventions.

Intra-urban inequalities in water access among households in Malawi's informal settlements: Toward pro-poor urban water policies in Africa

Poor access to potable water remains one of the most troubling challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa’s informal settlements (or slums) where majority of the poor and vulnerable urban population lives. While prior research shows significant disparities in water access between urban and rural areas, little is known about intra-urban inequalities and whether they are influenced by household socio-economic status. This paper draws from household surveys in three urban informal settlements in Lilongwe, Malawi, to explore intra-urban differences in water access based on water source, volume of water per capita, total time/day spent fetching water, and affordability of primary water source. It first compares the proportion of respondents that have access to water based on Malawi’s (national) and the United Nations and World Health Organization’s (international) minimum standards. It then uses linear and logistic regressions to examine socio-economic inequalities in water access. The results show inconsistencies in the proportion of households that satisfy Malawi versus the United Nations and World Health Organization minimum water-access standards. Household socio-economic status (SES) significantly influenced water access, underscoring the need for pro-poor water policies that recognize that even among households in predominantly poor and under-resourced urban settings, significant socio-economic differences underlie inequalities in water access.

Effect of the PiAstra Benchtop Flash-Heating Pasteurizer on Immune Factors of Donor Human Milk.

PiAstra is a simulated flash-heat (FH) pasteurization temperature monitoring system designed using Raspberry Pi technology for the pasteurization of human milk. This study analyzed the effect of the PiAstra FH method on human milk immune components (immunoglobulin A [IgA] and lactoferrin activity). Donor milk samples (N = 45) were obtained from a human milk bank, and pasteurized. Concentrations of IgA and lactoferrin activity were compared to their unpasteurized controls using the Student's t test. The PiAstra FH method retained 34.2% of IgA (p < 0.0001) and 40.4% of lactoferrin activity (p < 0.0001) when compared to unpasteurized controls. The retention of IgA by the PiAstra is similar to previous FH studies, while retention of lactoferrin activity was higher than previous FH studies. The high-technology, low-cost PiAstra system, which is able to retain vital immune components of human milk, provides safe donor milk for low-resourced settings. This enables the use of pasteurized donor milk when human milk is not available, potentially saving vulnerable infant lives.

Modeling the Phenology of Asian Citrus Psyllid (Hemiptera: Liviidae) in Urban Southern California: Effects of Environment, Habitat, and Natural Enemies.

Modeling can be used to characterize the effects of environmental drivers and biotic factors on the phenology of arthropod pests. From a biological control perspective, population dynamics models may provide insights as to when the most vulnerable pest life stages are available for natural enemies to attack. Analyses presented here used temperature and habitat dependent, instar-specific, discrete models to investigate the population dynamics of Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Liviidae). This pest is the target of a classical biological control program with the parasitoid Tamarixia radiata (Waterston) (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae). The population trends of D. citri eggs, nymphs, and adults, citrus flush growth patterns, and T. radiata activity were monitored monthly on orange and lemon trees at 10 urban sites in southern California for a 2-yr period. Cumulative D. citri egg, nymph, and adult days recorded at each site, were regressed against accumulated degree-days (DDs) to model the population dynamics of each development stage in relation to temperature. Using a biofix point of 1 January, the model predicted that 10% and 90% of eggs were laid by 198 and 2,255 DD, respectively. Populations of small and large D. citri nymphs increased slowly with 90% of the population recorded by 2,389 and 2,436 DD, respectively. D. citri adults were present year round with 10 and 90% of the population recorded by 95 and 2,687 DD, respectively. The potential implications of using DD models for optimizing inoculative releases of natural enemies, such as T. radiata into citrus habitat infested with D. citri, are discussed.

Silent Victims in the Public Eye: Socially Vulnerable EU Citizens' Exposure to Crime and Its Consequences.

This study used thematic analysis to explore 28 socially vulnerable European Union (EU) citizens who support themselves by begging in public spaces in Malmö, Sweden, their exposure to crime, and the consequences of victimization. The analysis revolved around the following themes: daily harassment in public spaces, multiple motives for victimization, strategies to combat victimization, and consequences of victimization. The participants described that they lived in a constant state of stress, due to their marginalized life situation and a fear of becoming victimized in public spaces while begging. Study participants claimed that it was not their ethnicity but rather the activity of begging and their overall vulnerable life situation together with a label as "non-Swedish" that motivate offenders to commit attacks against them. The discussion concludes by presenting a number of policy implications.

Vulnerability and buildings service life applied to preventive conservation in cultural heritage

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present research on vulnerability and service life indexes applied to cultural heritage buildings. The construction and rehabilitation industry is concerned with the maintenance of monuments and reducing the economic costs of urgent interventions by taking preventive conservation action in historic cities. By applying a vulnerability index or analyzing the service life of buildings, it is possible to reduce risk and optimize the identification, evaluation and prioritization of urgent monument restoration tasks in a city or a region to establish preventive conservation policies.Design/methodology/approachThis research sets out the concepts of vulnerability and service life, focusing on their methodologies in comparison with other techniques for building diagnosis, discussing the differences between indexes that measure the vulnerability and service life of buildings.FindingsThe vulnerability of three churches in Seville (Spain) was studied by means of their vulnerability index, based on Delphi analysis, and the service life of these buildings was also assessed, based on artificial intelligence tools. Delphi and artificial intelligence tools allow us to compare and dovetail different scenarios and expert opinions. The degree of each monument’s conservation is defined as its vulnerability index, which is an indirect function of deterioration levels. The service life of buildings, on the other hand, includes the assessment of vulnerability and hazards.Practical implicationsThis study is useful for stakeholders, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and policymakers, as an important reference on diagnosis, including updated, inexpensive and sustainable methodologies to manage the conservation of monuments, which are easy to implement in developed and developing countries. The application of vulnerability and/or service life indicators is crucial to ensuring the sustainability and improvement of maintenance carried out on cultural heritage buildings.Originality/valueThis study details new approaches based on artificial intelligence and Delphi analysis to prioritize preventive conservation actions in a city or region.

Vulnerability Life of LGBT Community in Curup Rejang Lebong Regency of Bengkulu Province

&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, or we known as LGBT is one of community that has vulnerability life. This research indicates that besides interacting and experiencing various disorders in social intersection aspects with family and society, healthy, education and work aspects, actually the LGBT’s community also has adaptation ability even utilizing to increase their well-being. Base on that, should be made social protection efforts through various activities of capacity building and social advocacy for LGBT’s community in facing their vulnerability.&#x0D; &#x0D; &#x0D;

Iron Supplementation during Pregnancy and Infancy: Uncertainties and Implications for Research and Policy

Iron is particularly important in pregnancy and infancy to meet the high demands for hematopoiesis, growth and development. Much attention has been given to conditions of iron deficiency (ID) and iron deficient anemia (IDA) because of the high global prevalence estimated in these vulnerable life stages. Emerging and preliminary evidence demonstrates, however, a U-shaped risk at both low and high iron status for birth and infant adverse health outcomes including growth, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, gastrointestinal health, and neurodegenerative diseases during aging. Such evidence raises questions about the effects of high iron intakes through supplementation or food fortification during pregnancy and infancy in iron-replete individuals. This review examines the emerging as well as the current understanding of iron needs and homeostasis during pregnancy and infancy, uncertainties in ascertaining iron status in these populations, and issues surrounding U-shaped risk curves in iron-replete pregnant women and infants. Implications for research and policy are discussed relative to screening and supplementation in these vulnerable populations, especially in developed countries in which the majority of these populations are likely iron-replete.

Vulnerable Creation: Vulnerable Human Life between Risk and Tragedy1

AbstractIn this paper a theology of vulnerability is explored by describing three bridges between risk and tragedy. Conceptually, ontological and situational vulnerability will be explored as the basis of anthropological realism. Hermeneutically, a case study is done by interpreting the documentary film “Roadside Radiation,” which shows attempts to live a normal life in tragedy in the “death zone” around Chernobyl. The theological bridge unfolds a theological approach to vulnerability that grasps its processive character.

Mussel larvae modify calcifying fluid carbonate chemistry to promote calcification

Understanding mollusk calcification sensitivity to ocean acidification (OA) requires a better knowledge of calcification mechanisms. Especially in rapidly calcifying larval stages, mechanisms of shell formation are largely unexplored—yet these are the most vulnerable life stages. Here we find rapid generation of crystalline shell material in mussel larvae. We find no evidence for intracellular CaCO3 formation, indicating that mineral formation could be constrained to the calcifying space beneath the shell. Using microelectrodes we show that larvae can increase pH and [CO32−] beneath the growing shell, leading to a ~1.5-fold elevation in calcium carbonate saturation state (Ωarag). Larvae exposed to OA exhibit a drop in pH, [CO32−] and Ωarag at the site of calcification, which correlates with decreased shell growth, and, eventually, shell dissolution. Our findings help explain why bivalve larvae can form shells under moderate acidification scenarios and provide a direct link between ocean carbonate chemistry and larval calcification rate.