Knowledge of historical fire activity tends to be focused at local to landscape scales with few attempts to examine how local patterns of fire activity scale to global patterns. Generally, fire activity varied globally and continuously since the last glacial maximum (LGM) in response to long-term changes in global climate and shorter-term regional changes in climate, vegetation, and human land use. We have synthesised sedimentary charcoal records of biomass burning since the LGM and present global maps showing changes in fire activity for time slices during the past 21,000 years (as differences in charcoal accumulation values compared to pre-industrial). There is strong broad-scale coherence in fire activity after the LGM, but spatial heterogeneity in the signals increases thereafter. In eastern and western North America and western Europe and southern South America, charcoal records indicate less-than-present fire activity from 21,000 to ~11,000 cal yr BP. In contrast, the tropical latitudes of South America and Africa show greaterthan-present fire activity from ~19,000 to ~17,000 cal yr BP whereas most sites from Indochina and Australia show greater-than-present fire activity from 16,000 to ~13,000 cal yr BP. Many sites indicate greater-than-present or near-present activity during the Holocene with the exception of eastern North America and eastern Asia from 8000 to ~2000 cal yr BP, Indonesia from 11,000 to 4000 cal yr BP, and southern South America from 6000 to 3000 cal yr BP where fire activity was less than present. Regional coherence in the patterns of change in fire activity was evident throughout the postglacial period. These complex patterns can be explained in terms of large-scale climate controls modulated by local changes in vegetation and fuel load.

The thematic synthesis provides new insights into stroke survivors' experiences of inpatient rehabilitation. Negative experiences were reported in all studies and include disempowerment, boredom, and frustration. Rehabilitation could be improved by increasing activity within formal therapy and in free time, fostering patients' autonomy through genuinely patient-centered care, and more effective communication and information. Future stroke rehabilitation research should take into account the experiences and preferences of stroke survivors.

In the hummingbird‐pollinated herb Ipomopsis aggregata, selection through male function during pollination favors wide corolla tubes. We explored the mechanisms behind this selection, using phenotypic selection analysis to compare effects of corolla width on two components of male pollination success, pollinator visit rate and pollen exported per visit. During single visits by captive hummingbirds, flowers with wider corollas exported more pollen, and more dye used as a pollen analogue, to stigmas of recipient flowers. Corolla width was less strongly related to visit rate in the field, and had no direct effect on visit rate after nectar production and corolla length were controlled for. Moreover, the phenotypic selection differential was 80% higher for the effect on pollen exported per visit, suggesting that this is the more important mechanism of selection.

BackgroundA multitude of theories, models and frameworks relating to implementing evidence-based practice in health care exist, which can be overwhelming for clinicians and clinical researchers new to the field of implementation science. Clinicians often bear responsibility for implementation, but may be unfamiliar with theoretical approaches designed to inform or understand implementation.Main textIn this article, a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and health service researchers present a pragmatic guide to help clinicians and clinical researchers understand what implementation theories, models and frameworks are; how a theoretical approach to implementation might be used; and some prompts to consider when selecting a theoretical approach for an implementation project. Ten commonly used and highly cited theoretical approaches are presented, none of which have been utilised to their full potential in the literature to date. Specifically, theoretical approaches tend to be applied retrospectively to evaluate or interpret findings from a completed implementation project, rather than being used to plan and design theory-informed implementation strategies which would intuitively have a greater likelihood of success. We emphasise that there is no right or wrong way of selecting a theoretical approach, but encourage clinicians to carefully consider the project’s purpose, scope and available data and resources to allow them to select an approach that is most likely to “value-add” to the implementation project.ConclusionBy assisting clinicians and clinical researchers to become confident in selecting and applying theoretical approaches to implementation, we anticipate an increase in theory-informed implementation projects. This then will contribute to more nuanced advice on how to address evidence-practice gaps and ultimately to contribute to better health outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-3671-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

In the hummingbird-pollinated herb Ipomopsis aggregata, selection through male function during pollination favors wide corolla tubes. We explored the mechanisms behind this selection, using phenotypic selection analysis to compare effects of corolla width on two components of male pollination success, pollinator visit rate and pollen exported per visit. During single visits by captive hummingbirds, flowers with wider corollas exported more pollen, and more dye used as a pollen analogue, to stigmas of recipient flowers. Corolla width was less strongly related to visit rate in the field, and had no direct effect on visit rate after nectar production and corolla length were controlled for. Moreover, the phenotypic selection differential was 80% higher for the effect on pollen exported per visit, suggesting that this is the more important mechanism of selection.