Is Trauma Isolating, or Does Isolation Traumatize? Loneliness and Posttraumatic Stress Mutually Reinforce One Another in the Aftermath of Environmental Disaster

While loneliness has been robustly linked to many health outcomes, limited research has considered its relationship with posttraumatic stress. The evidence that does exist points to a complex and bidirectional relationship between loneliness and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of trauma. Method: We conducted a longitudinal study of 209 Australian adults who had experienced bushfire disaster, with three timepoints of data across 3 years. A path analytic model was used to assess the unfolding relationship between loneliness and PTSD symptoms over time, with covariates of age, gender, education, and household income. Results: We found that loneliness was a key risk factor for worsening PTSD symptoms, which, in turn, predicted increasing loneliness. Specifically, those whose trauma exposure was more severe or who had background mental health risk reported worse loneliness and posttraumatic stress 12–18 months after the disaster (T1). Loneliness at T1 predicted greater PTSD symptoms at T2 (∼3 years postdisaster). Furthermore, T2 PTSD symptoms predicted greater loneliness at T3 (∼4 years postdisaster). The model explained 39% of the variance in T2 PTSD symptoms and 41% of the variance in T3 loneliness. Conclusions: These results speak to the importance of early response efforts that encourage collective recovery and community engagement in disaster management. This may support the long-term goal of preventing the onset of harmful cycles of loneliness and PTSD in the wake of traumatic experiences.Peer-reviewe

Book Review: The Ancients

Book Review of: The Ancients. By Andrew Darby, Allen and Unwin, 2025. ISBN: 978-1-76-106923-9 By David B. LindenmayerPeer-reviewe

The contributions of immigration to demographic change across cities and regions in Australia

In the context of low fertility and population ageing, many countries look to immigration to address labour shortages and reduce the effects of population decline. While the short-term effects of immigration are relatively well understood, the long-term demographic consequences of high and sustained immigration are still undetermined. In this paper, we highlight the major contributions that immigration has made to population change across 11 geographic areas in Australia from 1981 to 2021. The analyses use recently reconciled demographic component data for 18 overseas-born subgroups and the Australia-born population by age and sex. While net international migration of overseas-born people contributed approximately 56 per cent of overall population growth over the 40-year period, immigrants also made sizeable contributions to other demographic processes: 28 per cent of births, 31 per cent of deaths, and 17 per cent of interregional migration. This research provides new insights into both period-specific and long-term demographic effects of diverse immigration streams across Australia's cities and regions.The analyses presented in this paper extends previous research funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Project on 'The demographic consequences of migration to, from and within Australia' (DP150104405). James O'Donnell is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (project number DE240100232) funded by the Australian Government. The authors would like to thank Xujing Bai, Nan Liu, Yanlin Shi, Bernard Baffour, and Tom Wilson for their efforts in organizing the data and developing the reconciliation methods used for the 1981-2016 period.Peer-reviewe

Unraveling the interaction between hormones and incubation temperature on lizard cognition

Cognition is crucial for survival and reproduction. However, developmental conditions like thermal environments or stress-related hormones can shape cognitive abilities by altering brain physiology or function. Here, I investigated how prenatal thermal environment and corticosterone (CORT) - a key stress hormone in reptiles - affects cognitive development in two species of skinks: the delicate skink (Lampropholis delicata), and the common garden skink (L. guichenoti). I manipulated egg CORT levels and incubation temperature and then assessed lizards' performance across multiple cognitive domains, alongside mitochondrial physiology in brain regions involve in those cognitive processes. I found region-dependent effects of prenatal CORT and temperature on oxidative damage, but not on metabolic function. Nonetheless, mitochondrial physiology was not linked to cognitive performance. Data shows that most cognitive abilities - decision-making, detection of visual stimuli, behavioural flexibility, and spatial and associative learning - were resilient to early environmental conditions. However, CORT-treated L. delicata responded faster to prey-related chemical cues. Our results suggest that cognitive traits in L. delicata and L. guichenoti are generally robust to variation in prenatal CORT and temperature. Alternatively, it is also possible that the levels or duration of prenatal exposure used in this study were not sufficient to elicit measurable cognitive effects, and that more extreme or prolonged exposure might yield different outcomes. Furthermore, the absence of link between mitochondrial physiology and cognition - despite strong associations reported in mammals - raises important questions about species-specific mechanisms underlying cognitive processes. Conversely, such associations may emerge or strengthen with time - due to cumulative oxidative damage -suggesting age-dependent effects of mitochondrial physiology on cognitive processes. Future studies should explore the mechanisms underlining cognitive resilience to CORT and temperature or the effects of prolonged exposure to these factors as well as the potential for age-dependent relationships between mitochondrial function and cognitive performance

Value and place in Aboriginal seafood enterprise development in Australia's Northern Territory: experiences and perspectives from the Maningrida region.

The need to genuinely consider local ways of doing business in enterprise development processes is increasingly recognised in entrepreneurship research. Indigenous entrepreneurship stresses the place-based nature of enterprise development and local conceptualisations of enterprise value in the development and business models of enterprises. The Saltwater Aboriginal peoples of Australia's Northern Territory (NT), who hold rich and ancient spiritual, cultural, social, and economic connections with their coastal lands and seas, have engaged in seafood enterprise activities since before the 19th century and the colonisation of the NT region. Despite a range of external support provided to NT coastal communities, few Aboriginal seafood enterprises have endured since 1975. The research addresses the research question: how can value and place be better considered when supporting the development of remote Aboriginal seafood enterprises in the Northern Territory? Through centring the aspirations, experiences, and perspectives of Ndjebbana, Burarra, Na-kara, and Djambarrpuyngu Saltwater peoples from the Maningrida region of Arnhem Land in an exploratory case study, three aspects of seafood enterprises in Maningrida are investigated: (i) the value of past seafood enterprises from the perspective of the region's Saltwater peoples; (ii) place-based contextual influences on the development of an Aboriginal seafood enterprise established in 2015; and (iii) the value Saltwater people attribute to the current enterprise and the specificities of its business model. Through a collaborative community-based research approach with five Saltwater men with lifelong experiences of seafood enterprise development, the research examined the value of nine former seafood enterprises. The research found that Saltwater people associated the value of these enterprises first and foremost with the opportunities they offered to live and work on Country, generating income from locally owned natural resources. An entrepreneurial ecosystem approach applied in the study enabled place-based influences on contemporary seafood enterprise development to be examined. Findings spotlight several factors impacting on place-based on enterprise development, including legal pluralism (the co-existence of Aboriginal and Western regulations), local preferences and barriers to external markets, the region's human capital, and past seafood industry experience. The research reveals that the business model of the present Maningrida seafood enterprise is underpinned by a broad conceptualisation of enterprise value, incorporating cultural preservation, health and wellbeing, and connection to Country, which cannot be adequately captured by mainstream business model theory. The business model of the Maningrida seafood enterprise is characterised by small-scale, multi-species seafood harvesting occurring on the fishers' Sea Countries, predominantly for local markets. Through the study of Aboriginal seafood enterprise development in a remote area of the NT, the research makes two key contributions to Indigenous entrepreneurship knowledge. First is the recognition of the influence of Indigenous conceptualisations of value and place on enterprise development practice and business models. Second is a conceptualisation of enterprise value grounded in the connection to Country and the identity of Saltwater peoples. The research has implications for the design of Aboriginal enterprise development support including business planning assistance and for fisheries management in the remote communities of the NT

Temperature dependency of the optical properties of photovoltaic module component layers

Photovoltaic module performance in the field is strongly dependent on the optical properties of its component layers and the temperature dependencies of these properties. However, despite their importance, the temperature dependencies of the optical properties of many photovoltaic module components appear to have not been characterised. Hence, the assumptions regarding their optical stabilities at various temperatures have not been verified. In this study, a temperature-dependent spectrophotometry method is developed to enable this verification. The temperature dependencies of the optical properties of silicon nitride, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), and backsheets are characterised, and their impacts on module operations are quantified via ray-tracing simulations. It is concluded that (1) silicon nitride anti-reflection coatings are optically stable between room temperature and 85 °C, and (2) several temperature dependencies exist at different wavelengths in both EVA and backsheets, however, they do not have a significant impact on the module operation.The authors want to thank Zubair Abdullah-Vetter (UNSW) for providing samples, and Keith McIntosh (PV Lighthouse) and Gernot Oreski (Polymer Competence Center Leoben) for valuable discussions. This work was supported by the Australian Government through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency [ARENA; project 2022/TRAC001]. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained herein. Simon M. F. Zhang was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.Peer-reviewe

Was extinction of New Zealand's avian megafauna an unavoidable consequence of human arrival?

Human overexploitation contributed strongly to the loss of hundreds of bird species across Oceania, including nine giant, flightless birds called moa. The inevitability of anthropogenic moa extinctions in New Zealand has been fiercely debated. However, we can now rigorously evaluate their extinction drivers using spatially explicit demographic models capturing species-specific interactions between moa, natural climates and landscapes, and human colonists. By modelling the spatial abundance and extinction dynamics of six species of moa, validated against demographic and distributional inferences from the fossil record, we test whether their extinctions could have been avoided if human colonists moderated their hunting behaviours. We show that harvest rates of both moa birds (adults and subadults) and eggs are likely to have been low, varying between 4.0–6.0 % for birds and 2.5–12.0 % for eggs, annually. Our modelling, however, indicates that extinctions of moa could only have been avoided if Polynesian colonists maintained unrealistically expansive no-take zones (covering at least half of New Zealand's land area) and held their annual harvest rates to implausible levels (just 1 % of bird populations per annum). Although too late for moa, these insights provide valuable lessons and new computational approaches for conserving today's endangered megafauna.D.A.F. J.J.A. and M.V.L. acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council ( DP180102392 ).Peer-reviewe

Correction to

Correction to: Communications Earth & Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02044-3, published online 29 January 2025 The Supplementary Information originally published with this article was an earlier, incorrect version and is now updated in the HTML version of the article.Peer-reviewe

The effect of CEO adverse professional experience on management forecast pessimism

We examine how CEOs' past experiences of corporate distress affect their subsequent forecast behaviour. We find that CEOs who experienced distress in a non-CEO position at another firm issue more pessimistic management earnings forecasts after becoming CEO at their current firm. The effect of such experiences on CEOs' forecasting behaviour is more pronounced when these have occurred more frequently or recently. The effect of distress experiences is mitigated for overconfident and experienced CEOs, but amplified in firms with poor performance and high uncertainty. Our findings suggest that CEOs who experienced corporate distress could be overly cautious when forecasting future earnings.We thank the seminar participants at the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales for their valuable feedback on the paper. We acknowledge the financial support from the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.Peer-reviewe

Community-centred disaster recovery

This paper challenges current approaches to undertaking community-centred disaster recovery. Community-centred approaches are widely recognised as ‘the gold standard’ for effective recovery from disasters. Yet, they are rarely applied well enough in practice. Challenges include the ‘authority’ culture of command-and-control agencies, the emphasis on discrete recovery time frames, and the reluctance to relinquish centralised control. The paper focuses on people's experiences of community-centred recovery in New South Wales, Australia, which has experienced severe fires and floods since 2019. We undertook key informant interviews and an online survey to inquire into how community-centred recovery is enacted. Our work uncovered widespread dissatisfaction with current practices. The paper discusses key themes emerging from the research and ends with a call to change how community-centred recovery is framed and conducted by responding organisations, to include the underlying causes of vulnerability in recovery, to measure success differently, and to alter the narrative of who ‘owns’ disasters.Open access publishing facilitated by University of New South Wales, as part of the Wiley - University of New South Wales agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians. This research received ethics clearance (no. HC210846) as part of a project of the Resilient Towns Initiative, funded by Regional NSW. The research conducted for this paper was not funded by the project.Peer-reviewe