In April 2019, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released its recovery plan for the jaguar Panthera onca after several decades of discussion, litigation and controversy about the status of the species in the USA. The USFWS estimated that potential habitat, south of the Interstate-10 highway in Arizona and New Mexico, had a carrying capacity of c. six jaguars, and so focused its recovery programme on areas south of the USA–Mexico border. Here we present a systematic review of the modelling and assessment efforts over the last 25 years, with a focus on areas north of Interstate-10 in Arizona and New Mexico, outside the recovery unit considered by the USFWS. Despite differences in data inputs, methods, and analytical extent, the nine previous studies found support for potential suitable jaguar habitat in the central mountain ranges of Arizona and New Mexico. Applying slightly modified versions of the USFWS model and recalculating an Arizona-focused model over both states provided additional confirmation. Extending the area of consideration also substantially raised the carrying capacity of habitats in Arizona and New Mexico, from six to 90 or 151 adult jaguars, using the modified USFWS models. This review demonstrates the crucial ways in which choosing the extent of analysis influences the conclusions of a conservation plan. More importantly, it opens a new opportunity for jaguar conservation in North America that could help address threats from habitat losses, climate change and border infrastructure.

Continental Antarctica is a polar desert containing sparse pockets of vegetation within ice-free areas. Despite the recognized association between lichens, mosses and epiphytic diatoms, the environmental factors controlling diatom community structure are poorly understood. We investigated the association between diatom communities and host vegetation characteristics by experimentally adding nutrients and/or water to two bryophyte (healthy and moribund) and two lichen (crustose and Usnea) vegetation types in the Windmill Islands. Diatom communities were morphologically characterized, diversity indices calculated and differences between treatments, vegetation type and vegetation characteristics tested. We identified 49 diatom taxa, 8 of which occurred with > 1% relative abundance. Bryophyte and lichen vegetation harboured significantly different diatom communities, both in composition and diversity indices. Specifically, Luticola muticopsis was more prevalent in moribund bryophytes and crustose lichens, and Usnea lichens showed lower species richness than other types. While nutrient and water additions did not significantly alter diatom communities, diversity indices and some species showed relationships with vegetation physiological characteristics, notably %N and δ13C, suggesting the importance of ambient gradients in water and nutrient availability. Collectively, this work suggests that future conditions favouring the dominance of a particular vegetation type may have a homogenizing effect on the terrestrial diatom communities of East Antarctica.

Navigators help rural older adults with advanced illness and their families connect to needed resources, information, and people to improve their quality of life. This article describes the process used to engage experts – in rural aging, rural palliative care, and navigation – as well as rural community stakeholders to develop a conceptual definition of navigation and delineate navigation competencies for the care of this population. A discussion paper on the important considerations for navigation in this population was developed followed by a four-phased Delphi process with 30 expert panel members. Study results culminated in five general navigation competencies for health care providers caring for older rural persons and their families at end of life: provide patient/family screening; advocate for the patient/family; facilitate community connections; coordinate access to services and resources; and promote active engagement. Specific competencies were also developed. These competencies provide the foundation for research and curriculum development in navigation.

We present an update of the ‘key points’ from the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment (ACCE) report that was published by the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) in 2009. We summarise subsequent advances in knowledge concerning how the climates of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean have changed in the past, how they might change in the future, and examine the associated impacts on the marine and terrestrial biota. We also incorporate relevant material presented by SCAR to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meetings, and make use of emerging results that will form part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report.

Primary carers provide much of the day-to-day care for community-dwelling people living with dementia (PWD). Maintaining that contribution will require a more in-depth understanding of the primary carer role and the support needs that flow from that role. This study explored patterns of formal and informal support utilisation by people caring for a PWD in a rural-regional context. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 rural primary carers of a PWD and thematically analysed. Participant primary carers' almost total commitment to, and absorption in their role and their assumption of ultimate responsibility for the PWD's wellbeing meant that external social context, such as rurality, became less relevant. Carer networks effectively contracted to those key individuals who were central to supporting them in their caring task. External sources of support were tightly managed with strong boundaries around the provision of direct care to the PWD largely excluding all but professional providers. Primary carers are generally categorised along with other family and friends as informal care. However, in assuming primary responsible for the care and wellbeing for the PWD they effectively become the key care provider, suggesting that it would be productive in both research and practice to treat primary carers as key members of a care partnership alongside professional carers, rather than as adjuncts to formal care and/or another client.

Background: There is growing evidence that a palliative approach to care provision for people with dementia in residential aged care facilities improves their quality of life and provides support for family members. Despite the development of Guidelines for a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care (hereafter the Guidelines), there is limited evidence that these have been adopted. To date, little research has been undertaken to explore processes which could assist aged care staff to develop their practice consistent with the intent of the Guidelines.

Methods: This project utilized an action research method, through which staff members from a residential dementia special care unit (SCU) undertook an investigation into their practice to explore how they could develop strategies to support a palliative approach to care provision. A key focus was related to addressing the information needs of family members of residents on the SCU.

Results: Aged care staff involved in this project had little understanding of available evidence that could assist them to better support family members, including the existence of the Guidelines. Through their engagement in successive action research cycles, these staff accessed evidence-based resources and developed strategies to address the information needs of family members.

Conclusions: When provided with an opportunity to reflect on and critique their practice, aged care staff were better positioned to engage with evidence concerning a palliative approach and to execute change in their practice to improve care provision for family members.

The capacity of the polar flora to adapt is of increasing concern given current and predicted environmental change in these regions. Previous genetic studies of Antarctic mosses have been of limited value due to a lack of variation in the markers or non-specificity of the methods used. We examined the power of five microsatellite loci developed for the cosmopolitan moss Ceratodon purpureus to detect genetically distinct clones and infer the distribution of clones within and among populations from the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Our microsatellite data suggest that the extraordinarily high levels of variation reported in RAPD studies were artificially elevated by the presence of contaminants. We found surprisingly little contribution of asexual reproduction to the genetic structure of the Windmill Islands populations, but more loci are required to determine the distribution of individual clones within and among populations. It is apparent that Antarctic populations of C. purpureus possess less genetic diversity than temperate populations, and thus have less capacity for adaptive change in response to environmental variation, but more markers are needed to resolve the total genetic diversity in Antarctic C. purpureus and other mosses.

It is not known what constitutes an optimal diet in infancy. There are relatively few studies of weaning practice in the UK, and there is a need for prospective data on the effects of infant diet and nutrition on health in later life. We describe the dietary patterns, defined using principal components analysis of FFQ data, of 1434 infants aged 6 and 12 months, born between 1999 and 2003. The two most important dietary patterns identified at 6 and 12 months were very similar. The first pattern was characterised by high consumption of fruit, vegetables and home-prepared foods (‘infant guidelines’ pattern). The second pattern was characterised by high consumption of bread, savoury snacks, biscuits and chips (‘adult foods’ pattern). Dietary pattern scores were correlated at 6 and 12 months (r 0·46 ‘infant guidelines’; r 0·45 ‘adult foods’). These patterns, which reflect wide variations in weaning practice, are associated with maternal and family characteristics. A key influence on the infant diet is the quality of the maternal diet. Women who comply with dietary recommendations, and who have high intakes of fruit and vegetables, wholemeal bread and rice and pasta, are more likely to have infants who have comparable diets – with high ‘infant guidelines’ pattern scores. Conversely, women whose own diets are characterised by high intakes of chips, white bread, crisps and sweets are more likely to have infants who have high ‘adult foods’ pattern scores. The effects of these patterns on growth and development, and on long-term outcomes need to be investigated.

Gonadal neoplasms (germinomas) in softshell clams, Mya arenaria, have only been reported from locations in Maine, USA despite the fact that the geographic range of M. arenaria extends from Labrador to North Carolina on the east coast of North America. To more accurately determine the geographic distribution of this disease, adult clams (n = 18–60 per sample) obtained between 1989 and 1997 from sites along the entire coast of Maine and from Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) were examined histologically for the presence of neoplasia. Gonadal neoplasms were present at 10 of the 28 locations sampled, including sites in Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, at prevalences ranging from 3.3 to 50% and at all stages of development. Prevalence and stage of development, however, were consistently greater at sites located between Penobscot Bay, Maine and Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick. There was no correlation between mean clam size (shell length) and prevalence. Clams with neoplasia were predominantly female. To assess possible disease transmissibility and subsequent mortality rates, naïve clams were transplanted to a site where neoplasia is enzootic and placed in close proximity to clams having the disease. After 6 months, no evidence of neoplasia was found in the transplanted clams even though cumulative mortality (14.7%) was greater than that in local clams (3.4%). These results suggest that gonadal neoplasms in M. arenaria progress slowly and cause little mortality once present in an individual and may not have an infectious etiology. Loss of reproductive output is a potential long-term effect of the disease.