East Rennell World Heritage Site : misunderstandings, inconsistencies and opportunities in the implementation of the World Heritage Convention in the Pacific Islands

Continuing traditional land tenure and resource use pattern the landscapes and seascapes of the Pacific Islands, and the rights of customary land owners are enshrined in the constitutions of many Pacific Island states. The implications of this for heritage conservation programs implemented by national governments under international Conventions and Agreements are explored through a case study of East Rennell World Heritage site, the first site to be inscribed based on natural criteria under customary ownership and management. Dissatisfaction with World Heritage listing expressed by the community of East Rennell is argued to reflect inconsistencies in the requirements for inscription of the property and a tension between the conservation and ‘beauty pageant’ functions of the World Heritage List.

Low health-related quality of life in school-aged children in Tonga, a lower-middle income country in the South Pacific

Background:
Ensuring a good life for all parts of the population, including children, is high on the public health agenda in most countries around the world. Information about children’s perception of their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and its socio-demographic distribution is, however, limited and almost exclusively reliant on data from Western higher income countries.

Objectives:
To investigate HRQoL in schoolchildren in Tonga, a lower income South Pacific Island country, and to compare this to HRQoL of children in other countries, including Tongan children living in New Zealand, a high-income country in the same region.

Design:
A cross-sectional study from Tonga addressing all secondary schoolchildren (11–18 years old) on the outer island of Vava’u and in three districts of the main island of Tongatapu (2,164 participants). A comparison group drawn from the literature comprised children in 18 higher income and one lower income country (Fiji). A specific New Zealand comparison group involved all children of Tongan descendent at six South Auckland secondary schools (830 participants). HRQoL was assessed by the self-report Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0.

Results:
HRQoL in Tonga was overall similar in girls and boys, but somewhat lower in children below 15 years of age. The children in Tonga experienced lower HRQoL than the children in all of the 19 comparison countries, with a large difference between children in Tonga and the higher income countries (Cohen’s d 1.0) and a small difference between Tonga and the lower income country Fiji (Cohen’s d 0.3). The children in Tonga also experienced lower HRQoL than Tongan children living in New Zealand (Cohen’s d 0.6).

Conclusion:
The results reveal worrisome low HRQoL in children in Tonga and point towards a potential general pattern of low HRQoL in children living in lower income countries, or, alternatively, in the South Pacific Island countries.

Implementing an international health treaty in small Pacific Island nations

Erik Martin explored the implementation of an international tobacco control policy in the Pacific Island nations of the Cook Islands, Nauru, Palau and Vanuatu. This qualitative study explored how tobacco control policies are influenced and provided recommendations on how to advance tobacco control policy to benefit population health.

Prevalence of hyponatremia in acute medical admissions in tropical Asia Pacific Australia

To determine prevalence of hyponatremia in acute medical admissions in Northern Australasia.

The diet of Pacific gulls (Larus pacificus) breeding at Seal Island in northern Bass Strait

The endemic Pacific gull (Larus pacificus) is Australia's largest larid, and though little is currently known of its foraging ecology, its size and wide distribution suggest that it may play an important role within the marine environment. In the present study, regurgitate pellets collected from Seal Island in northern Bass Strait were used to compare intra- and interannual trends in diet composition. The main taxa identified in pellets were the common diving-petrel (Pelecanoides urinatrix), leatherjacket species (Family Monacanthidae), short-tailed shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris) and mirror bush (Coprosma repens). Analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) identified no significant differences in numerical abundance of the dominant prey species between years, suggesting that the prey base in this region is temporally consistent or that the gulls consume low enough numbers to be unaffected by fluctuation in prey populations. Diving-petrels were consumed in consistently high numbers, suggesting the gulls may be an important predator of this species, or that the gulls are particularly skilled at foraging for them. © CSIRO 2014.

Phosphate absorption across multiple epithelia in the Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii)

Inorganic phosphate (Pi) is an essential nutrient for all organisms, but in seawater, Pi is a limiting nutrient. This study investigated the primary mechanisms of Pi uptake in Pacific hagfish (Eptatretus stoutii) using ex vivo physiological and molecular techniques. Hagfish were observed to have the capacity to absorb Pi from the environment into at least three epithelial surfaces: the intestine, skin, and gill. Pi uptake in all tissues was concentration dependent, and saturable Pi transport was observed in the skin and gill at <2.0 mmol/l Pi. Gill and intestinal Pi uptake was sodium dependent, but Pi uptake into the skin increased under low sodium conditions. Gill Pi transport exhibited an apparent affinity constant ∼0.23–0.6 mmol/l Pi. A complete sequence of a type II sodium phosphate cotransporter (Slc34a) was obtained from the hagfish gill. Phylogenetic analysis of the hagfish Slc34a transporter indicates that it is earlier diverging than, and/or ancestral to, the other identified vertebrate Slc34a transporters (Slc34a1, Slc34a2, and Slc34a3). With the use of RT-PCR, the hagfish Slc34a transcript was detected in the intestine, skin, gill, and kidney, suggesting that this may be the transporter involved in Pi uptake into multiple epithelia in the hagfish. This is the first measurement of Pi uptake across the gill or skin of any vertebrate animal and first sodium phosphate cotransporter identified in hagfish.