The varied islands of the Pacific provide an ideal natural experiment for studying the factors shaping human impact on the environment. Previous research into pre-European deforestation across the Pacific indicated a major effect of environment but did not account for cultural variation or control for dependencies in the data due to shared cultural ancestry and geographic proximity. The relative importance of environment and culture on Pacific deforestation and forest replacement and the extent to which environmental impact is constrained by cultural ancestry therefore remain unexplored. Here we use comparative phylogenetic methods to model the effect of nine ecological and two cultural variables on pre-European Pacific forest outcomes at 80 locations across 67 islands. We show that some but not all ecological features remain important predictors of forest outcomes after accounting for cultural covariates and non-independence in the data. Controlling for ecology, cultural variation in agricultural intensification predicts deforestation and forest replacement, and there is some evidence that land tenure norms predict forest replacement. These findings indicate that, alongside ecology, cultural factors also predict pre-European Pacific forest outcomes. Although forest outcomes covary with cultural ancestry, this effect disappears after controlling for geographic proximity and ecology. This suggests that forest outcomes were not tightly constrained by colonists’ cultural ancestry, but instead reflect a combination of ecological constraints and the short-term responses of each culture in the face of those constraints.

Background: Specialist training bodies continue to devise innovative methods of gathering information on trainee workplace performance to meet the requirements of competency-based medical education. We reviewed recent innovations in workplace-based assessment (WBA) tools to identify strengths, weaknesses, and trade-offs inherent in their design and use. Methods: In this scoping review, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we systematically searched databases between 2009 and 2019 for WBA tools with novel characteristics not typically seen in traditional WBAs. These included innovations in rating scales, ways of collecting information, technological innovations, ways of triggering WBAs, and approaches to compiling and using information. Results: We identified 30 innovative WBA tools whose characteristics could be categorised into seven dimensions: frequency of assessment, granularity (unit of performance assessed), coverage of the curriculum, rating method, initiation of the WBA, information use, and incentives. These dimensions had multiple interdependencies and trade-offs, often balancing generating assessment data with available resources. Philosophical stance on assessment also influenced WBA choice, for example prioritising trainee-centred learning (i.e. initiation of WBA and transparency of assessment data), perceptions of assessment and feedback as burdensome or beneficial, and holistic vs reductionist views on assessment of performance. Conclusions: Our synthesis of the literature on innovative WBAs provides a framework for categorising tool characteristics across seven dimensions, systematically teasing apart the considerations in design and use of workplace assessments. It also draws attention to the trade-offs inherent in tool design and selection, and enables a more deliberate consideration of the tool characteristics most appropriate to the local context.

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Oneness is a sense of profound unity with some other entity, typically a large, abstract entity such as nature or all of existence. This article offers a typology of oneness based on a review of oneness concepts in the psychology literature. The typology distinguishes between oneness experiences and oneness intuitions or beliefs, the latter being propositions about how self and other are connected. It also distinguishes between three perceived ontologies: expansion (including other in self), interdependence (self and other in symbiosis), and essential (self and other sharing some fundamental property). Confirmatory factor analysis ( n = 102) supported the typology’s dimensions within the scope of nature, using novel sets of items based on restructuring extant oneness measures. Implications of the typology for understanding oneness with nature and its role in addressing environmental crises are discussed, including how these may interact with cultural context.

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