Invasive alien species (IAS) exact large biodiversity and economic costs and are a significant component of human-induced, global environmental change. Previous studies looking at the variation in alien species across regions have been limited geographically or taxonomically or have not considered economics. We used a global invasive species database to regress IAS per-country on a suite of socioeconomic, ecological, and biogeographical variables. We varied the countries included in the regression tree analyses, in order to explore whether certain outliers were biasing the results, and in most of the cases, merchandise imports was the most important explanatory variable. The greater the degree of international trade, the higher the number of IAS. We also found a positive relationship between species richness and the number of invasives, in accord with other investigations at large spatial scales. Island status (overall), country area, latitude, continental position (New World versus Old World) or other measures of human disturbance (e.g., GDP per capita, population density) were not found to be important determinants of a country's degree of biological invasion, contrary to previous studies. Our findings also provide support to the idea that more resources for combating IAS should be directed at the introduction stage and that novel trade instruments need to be explored to account for this environmental externality.

For the past 20 years, the New Zealand Deprivation Index (NZDep) has been the universal measure of area-based social circumstances for New Zealand (NZ) and often the key social determinant used in population health and social research. This paper presents the first theoretical and methodological shift in the measurement of area deprivation in New Zealand since the 1990s and describes the development of the New Zealand Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD).We briefly describe the development of Data Zones, an intermediary geographical scale, before outlining the development of the New Zealand Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), which uses routine datasets and methods comparable to current international deprivation indices. We identified 28 indicators of deprivation from national health, social development, taxation, education, police databases, geospatial data providers and the 2013 Census, all of which represented seven Domains of deprivation: Employment; Income; Crime; Housing; Health; Education; and Geographical Access. The IMD is the combination of these seven Domains. The Domains may be used individually or in combination, to explore the geography of deprivation and its association with a given health or social outcome.Geographic variations in the distribution of the IMD and its Domains were found among the District Health Boards in NZ, suggesting that factors underpinning overall deprivation are inconsistent across the country. With the exception of the Access Domain, the IMD and its Domains were statistically and moderately-to-strongly associated with both smoking rates and household poverty.The IMD provides a more nuanced view of area deprivation circumstances in Aotearoa NZ. Our vision is for the IMD and the Data Zones to be widely used to inform research, policy and resource allocation projects, providing a better measurement of area deprivation in NZ, improved outcomes for Māori, and a more consistent approach to reporting and monitoring the social climate of NZ.

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Background: Foot and ankle problems are a common but relatively neglected manifestation of juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Studies of medical and non-medical interventions have shown that clinical outcome measures can be improved. However existing data has been drawn from small non-randomised clinical studies of single interventions that appear to under-represent the adult population suffering from juvenile idiopathic arthritis. To date, no evidence of combined therapies or integrated care for juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients with foot and ankle problems exists.

We explore the feasibility of developing measures of area deprivation from routinely collected administrative data for the Auckland Region, based on the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation. Using data from national health, social development, education, and police databases, geospatial data providers and the 2006 Census, we developed seven domains of deprivation: Employment; Income; Crime; Housing; Health; Education; and Geographical Access, which were combined to create an overall Index of Multiple Area‐Level Deprivation.Small areas developed for this research (‘Lower Zones’) highlight variations in deprivation for domains separately and combined, and validate the indices using smoking prevalence data.

Farmers have been fighting weeds and pests since the beginnings of agriculture, but the impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) on native species, habitats and ecosystem services have only been brought to the worldÕs attention relatively recently. Invasive plants, also known as environmental weeds, constitute an insidious Ôbiological pollutionÕ. Unlike many other types of pollution, they are not diluted in time but, on the contrary, can expand in numbers, density and geographical extentoften exponentially. This paper illustrates an increasing ability to fight back, using a number of case studies of good management practice, including prevention, ecosystem approaches, adaptive management and stakeholder involvement. It identifies some of the challenges inherent in managing IAS in complex situations and identifies areas where weed scientists and other researchers can increase their contributions. Crucially, communities, conservation groups, NGOs and agencies undertaking prevention and management activities need ready access to science-based biological and ecological information about target species, prevention strategies and management techniques, as well as case studies from other regions facing similar problems. Information exchange is a key component of effective responses to biological invasions. A number of global-scale information exchange mechanisms are described.