A Model of Local Adaptation

The visual system constantly adapts to different luminance levels when viewing natural scenes. The state of visual adaptation is the key parameter in many visual models. While the time-course of such adaptation is well understood, there is little known about the spatial pooling that drives the adaptation signal. In this work we propose a new empirical model of local adaptation, that predicts how the adaptation signal is integrated in the retina. The model is based on psychophysical measurements on a high dynamic range (HDR) display. We employ a novel approach to model discovery, in which the experimental stimuli are optimized to find the most predictive model. The model can be used to predict the steady state of adaptation, but also conservative estimates of the visibility(detection) thresholds in complex images.We demonstrate the utility of the model in several applications, such as perceptual error bounds for physically based rendering, determining the backlight resolution for HDR displays, measuring the maximum visible dynamic range in natural scenes, simulation of afterimages, and gaze-dependent tone mapping

Valuing adaptation under rapid change

AbstractThe methods used to plan adaptation to climate change have been heavily influenced by scientific narratives of gradual change and economic narratives of marginal adjustments to that change. An investigation of the theoretical aspects of how the climate changes suggests that scientific narratives of climate change are socially constructed, biasing scientific narratives to descriptions of gradual as opposed rapid, non-linear change. Evidence of widespread step changes in recent climate records and in model projections of future climate is being overlooked because of this. Step-wise climate change has the potential to produce rapid increases in extreme events that can cross institutional, geographical and sectoral domains.Likewise, orthodox economics is not well suited to the deep uncertainty faced under climate change, requiring a multi-faceted approach to adaptation. The presence of tangible and intangible values range across five adaptation clusters: goods; services; capital assets and infrastructure; social assets and infrastructure; and natural assets and infrastructure. Standard economic methods have difficulty in giving adequate weight to the different types of values across these clusters. They also do not account well for the inter-connectedness of impacts and subsequent responses between agents in the economy. As a result, many highly-valued aspects of human and environmental capital are being overlooked.Recent extreme events are already pressuring areas of public policy, and national strategies for emergency response and disaster risk reduction are being developed as a consequence. However, the potential for an escalation of total damage costs due to rapid change requires a coordinated approach at the institutional level, involving all levels of government, the private sector and civil society.One of the largest risks of maladaptation is the potential for un-owned risks, as risks propagate across domains and responsibility for their management is poorly allocated between public and private interests, and between the roles of the individual and civil society. Economic strategies developed by the disaster community for disaster response and risk reduction provide a base to work from, but many gaps remain.We have developed a framework for valuing adaptation that has the following aspects: the valuation of impacts thus estimating values at risk, the evaluation of different adaptation options and strategies based on cost, and the valuation of benefits expressed as a combination of the benefits of avoided damages and a range of institutional values such as equity, justice, sustainability and profit.The choice of economic methods and tools used to assess adaptation depends largely on the ability to constrain uncertainty around problems (predictive uncertainty) and solutions (outcome uncertainty). Orthodox methods can be used where both are constrained, portfolio methodologies where problems are constrained and robust methodologies where solutions are constrained. Where both are unconstrained, process-based methods utilising innovation methods and adaptive management are most suitable. All methods should involve stakeholders where possible.Innovative processes methods that enable transformation will be required in some circumstances, to allow institutions, sectors and communities to prepare for anticipated major change.Please cite this report as: Jones, RN, Young, CK, Handmer, J, Keating, A, Mekala, GD, Sheehan, P 2013 Valuing adaptation under rapid change, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 192.The methods used to plan adaptation to climate change have been heavily influenced by scientific narratives of gradual change and economic narratives of marginal adjustments to that change. An investigation of the theoretical aspects of how the climate changes suggests that scientific narratives of climate change are socially constructed, biasing scientific narratives to descriptions of gradual as opposed rapid, non-linear change. Evidence of widespread step changes in recent climate records and in model projections of future climate is being overlooked because of this. Step-wise climate change has the potential to produce rapid increases in extreme events that can cross institutional, geographical and sectoral domains.Likewise, orthodox economics is not well suited to the deep uncertainty faced under climate change, requiring a multi-faceted approach to adaptation. The presence of tangible and intangible values range across five adaptation clusters: goods; services; capital assets and infrastructure; social assets and infrastructure; and natural assets and infrastructure. Standard economic methods have difficulty in giving adequate weight to the different types of values across these clusters. They also do not account well for the inter-connectedness of impacts and subsequent responses between agents in the economy. As a result, many highly-valued aspects of human and environmental capital are being overlooked.Recent extreme events are already pressuring areas of public policy, and national strategies for emergency response and disaster risk reduction are being developed as a consequence. However, the potential for an escalation of total damage costs due to rapid change requires a coordinated approach at the institutional level, involving all levels of government, the private sector and civil society.One of the largest risks of maladaptation is the potential for un-owned risks, as risks propagate across domains and responsibility for their management is poorly allocated between public and private interests, and between the roles of the individual and civil society. Economic strategies developed by the disaster community for disaster response and risk reduction provide a base to work from, but many gaps remain.We have developed a framework for valuing adaptation that has the following aspects: the valuation of impacts thus estimating values at risk, the evaluation of different adaptation options and strategies based on cost, and the valuation of benefits expressed as a combination of the benefits of avoided damages and a range of institutional values such as equity, justice, sustainability and profit.The choice of economic methods and tools used to assess adaptation depends largely on the ability to constrain uncertainty around problems (predictive uncertainty) and solutions (outcome uncertainty). Orthodox methods can be used where both are constrained, portfolio methodologies where problems are constrained and robust methodologies where solutions are constrained. Where both are unconstrained, process-based methods utilising innovation methods and adaptive management are most suitable. All methods should involve stakeholders where possible.Innovative processes methods that enable transformation will be required in some circumstances, to allow institutions, sectors and communities to prepare for anticipated major change

Using a scenario-neutral framework to avoid potential maladaptation to future flood risk

This study develops a coherent framework to detect those catchment types associated with ahigh risk of maladaptation to futureflood risk. Using the“scenario‐neutral”approach to impactassessment the sensitivity of Irish catchments tofluvialflooding is examined in the context of nationalclimate change allowances. A predefined sensitivity domain is used to quantifyflood responses to +2 °Cmean annual temperature with incremental changes in the seasonality and mean of the annual precipitationcycle. The magnitude of the 20‐yearflood is simulated at each increment using two rainfall‐runoff models(GR4J, NAM), then concatenated as response surfaces for 35 sample catchments. A typology of catchmentsensitivity is developed using clustering and discriminant analysis of physical attributes. The same attributesare used to classify 215 ungauged/data‐sparse catchments. To address possible redundancies, the exposure ofdifferent catchment types to projected climate is established using an objectively selected subset of theCoupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 ensemble. Hydrological model uncertainty is shown tosignificantly influence sensitivity and have a greater effect than ensemble bias. A nationalflood riskallowance of 20%, considering all 215 catchments is shown to afford protection against ~48% to 98% of theuncertainty in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 subset (Representative ConcentrationPathway 8.5; 2070–2099), irrespective of hydrological model and catchment type. However, results indicatethat assuming a standard national or regional allowance could lead to local over/under adaptation. Herein,catchments with relatively less storage are sensitive to seasonal amplification in the annual cycle ofprecipitation and warrant special attention

Systematic Control of Aged Skeletal Muscle Following High-Intensity Stretch-Shortening Contraction Exercise Training: Epigenomic Regulation and Signaling Factors Underpinning Adaptation

Sarcopenia, the age-related decline in skeletal muscle mass, results in a loss of strength and functional capacity, which subsequently increases the risk of disease, disability, frailty, and all-cause mortality. Exercise is known to be an efficacious paradigm for improving health and attenuating or preventing many chronic diseases. For the previous two decades, our laboratory has established an in vivo rodent dynamometer model to explore the effects of various skeletal muscle training paradigms following stretch-shortening contractions (SSCs).The responses tohigh-intensity resistance-type exercise training (RTET) using this physiological model ranges from adaptation, characterized by enhanced skeletal muscle performance along with increased muscle mass, to maladaptation, defined as an absence or diminishment of skeletal muscle performance and no improvements in muscle mass. Utilizing a non-injurious SSC protocol, training-induced adaptation occurs in young rodents; this response is altered with age in which old rodents undergo maladaptation when exposed to this same chronic loading protocol. Additionally, with respect to chronologically advancing age, our previous work indicates an altered adaptive phenotype following SSC RTET occurs prior to complete biological development of the rodent – six months of age in the adult rat, which we believe may indicate the onset of a loss in homeostatic control leading to an age-specific biological departure from the adaptive response. However, recently we have shown that modifying the frequency of RTET from three to two days per week in older rodents (e.g. 30-31 months of age) attenuates age-dependent maladaptation and restores muscle quality to a younger phenotype. Despite the therapeutic potential of RTET, a fundamental basis for evidence-based exercise prescription is still largely undetermined because the molecular, cellular and integrated physiological pathways involved in exercise-induced muscle adaptation are not fully understood. Aging in-and-of-itself is a biological process associated with an altered phenotype, and emerging evidence suggests these changes are possibly linked to epigenomic processes. Excitingly, recent research has shown that exercise can influence changes in DNA methylation in skeletal muscle. However, it is currently unknown how exactly DNA methylation may be influencing the adaptation of skeletal muscle to high-intensity SSC RTET, which could be an important mechanism underlying the responsivity of the muscle to training in the context of aging. Traditionally, the term muscle memory has been defined as describing the capability of skeletal muscle to respond more quickly to an applied stimulus that has been encountered previously in spite of periods of inactivity. Recently, emerging evidence has pointed to the existence of a cellular foundation of skeletal muscle memory. Because environmental stimuli and stressors lead to modifications in gene expression, epigenetics/epigenomics are highly likely to form the underlying basis for this cellular memory. However, despite this collective knowledge, to date no studies have determined whether or not changes via DNA methylation that occur as a result of exposure to an adaptive exercise stimulus has a lasting influence on the adaptability of skeletal muscle upon reintroduction to the same stimulus at a later life. In order to examine these unresolved issues, the purpose of this dissertation followed three specific aims: 1) To determine the effects of aging and a reduced training frequency on the activation of molecular signaling pathways associated with the adaptation of skeletal muscle following one month of high-intensity SSC RTET in old rats; 2) to investigate whether DNA methylation influences the molecular signaling activity and adaptability of skeletal muscle following one month of high-intensity SSC RTET, and whether reducing the training frequency modifies the methylation profile of skeletal muscle in response to the training stimulus; 3) to examine if introducing high-intensity SSC RTET at an earlier relative age promotes changes in molecular signaling and DNA methylation that positively influences the ability of skeletal muscle to adapt upon re-exposure to the same paradigm at a later agepreviously shown to have the inability to go through the full adaptive response . The hypotheses for this research were that the ability of aged muscle to adapt to high-intensity SSC RTET would be compromised when exposed to an inappropriate stimulus (i.e., maladaptive) as a consequence of a dysregulated molecular signaling response which would be observable in distinct pathways crucial in muscle homeostasis and remodeling; furthermore, these potential age-related dysregulated events in gene activity would occur as a consequence to altered DNA methylation. Moreover, older animals exposed to a reduced frequency of high-intensity SSC RTET would respond favorably to the training stimulus and in an appropriate manner (i.e., adaptation) and would have a resemblance more like young rats in terms of the molecular signaling pathway and DNA methylation responses compared to age-matched counterparts exposed to a higher frequency that induces maladaptation. Additionally, training rodents at a younger relative age compared to where age-dependent maladaptation occurs would attenuate DNA methylation and therefore positively augment the adaptability of muscle to respond favorably to chronic SSC RTET at a later age following detraining. The results from this study could be vital in understanding the underlying performance, physiological, molecular, and environmental factors influencing the capability of aged skeletal muscle to undergo adaptation in response to RTET; and, thus have important ramifications in the attenuation and/or reversal of sarcopenia. Additionally, we sought to determine the therapeutic efficacy of a training-retraining paradigm using our in vivo high-intensity RTET paradigm by investigating whether or not training at an earlier age is able to prevent functional and physiological decrements of skeletal muscle during the later stages of life

Mapping dynamic interactions among cognitive biases in depression

Depression is theorized to be caused in part by biased cognitive processing of emotional information. Yet, prior research has adopted a reductionist approach that does not characterize how biases in cognitive processes such as attention and memory work together to confer risk for this complex multifactorial disorder. Grounded in affective and cognitive science, we highlight four mechanisms to understand how attention biases, working memory difficulties, and long-term memory biases interact and contribute to depression. We review evidence for each mechanism and highlight time- and context-dependent dynamics. We outline methodological considerations and recommendations for research in this area. We conclude with directions to advance the understanding of depression risk, cognitive training interventions, and transdiagnostic properties of cognitive biases and their interactions

Chronobiol Int

Few studies have examined shiftwork adaptation among police officers or potential differences in disease biomarkers among adapted and maladapted shiftworkers. This study characterized shiftwork adaptation among 430 police officers from the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study. Police officers working fixed night shifts with symptoms characteristic of adaptation and maladaptation were identified using latent class analysis (n\ua0=\ua0242). Two approaches were applied, one with police-specific symptoms and another using more general symptoms as shiftwork adaptation indicators. Biomarkers of inflammation, heart rate variability, and cardiometabolic risk were then compared between shiftwork adaptation groups, and with officers working day shifts, after adjusting for confounding. When analyses included police-specific symptoms, maladapted shiftworkers (n\ua0=\ua073) had more self-reported stress, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and less social support than adapted shiftworkers (n\ua0=\ua0169). Using more general symptoms, maladapted officers (n\ua0=\ua056) reported more stress and depression, and less social support than adapted officers (n\ua0=\ua0186). In police-specific models, adjusted (least-squares) means (\ub1 standard error) of circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentrations in maladapted officers (0.8\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml]) were modestly elevated relative to adapted shiftworkers (0.7\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml], | =\ua0.09) and relative to permanent day workers (0.5\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml], p 64\ua00.01), and leptin levels in maladapted officers (9.6\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml]) exceeded those in the adapted (9.4\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml], p 64\ua00.01) and day shift groups (9.4\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[pg/ml], | =\ua0.03). In the general model, adjusted mean tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-\u3b1) concentrations among maladapted officers (5.6\ua0\ub1\ua00.23\ua0pg/ml) exceeded the adapted (4.8\ua0\ub1\ua00.2\ua0pg/ml, p 64\ua00.01) and day workers (5.0\ua0\ub1\ua00.2\ua0pg/ml, | =\ua0.04), and insulin among maladapted officers was higher (2.4\ua0\ub1\ua00.1 ln[uu/ml]) than the adapted group (1.8\ua0\ub1\ua00.1\ua0ln[uu/ml], | =\ua0.03). No differences were observed for the other biomarkers. The results suggest that maladaptation among police officers working fixed night shifts may lead to increases in leptin, insulin, IL-6, and TNF-\u3b1; however, the cross-sectional design and possible residual confounding preclude interpretation of cause and effect. Prospective studies are planned to further characterize the relationship between shiftwork maladaptation and biomarkers of chronic disease risk in this police officer cohort.CC999999/ImCDC/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/2021-01-07T00:00:00Z33781135PMC826227310006vault:3726

Contribution of behavioural assessment to the planning of care and treatment with the mentally handicapped

SIGLELD:D46415/83 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Ecomodding. Understanding and Communicating the Climate Crisis by Co-Creating Commercial Video Games

This article explores how the climate crisis and specifically the underlying “crisis of the imagination” (Bendor 2018, 132) exacerbate the entrenchment of environmental communication, and how modifying commercial video games (ecomodding) can facilitate the use of games as effective communication infrastructures to address this issue. Environmental communication challenges are well-studied, but remain difficult to tackle in practice. Timothy Morton summarizes these challenges by defining climate change and related phenomena as “hyperobjects” (Morton 2013), which appear tangible but are always only partially knowable and communicable. In recent years, games have been increasingly regarded as a potential solution to these problems (e.g. Chang 2013); as games provide agency to players, they can be specifically effective as “tools to communicate about climate (change) uncertainty” (van Pelt et al. 2015). More recently, though, the promises of ecogames are offset against more critical questions. For example, (Asplund 2020) addresses “credibility aspects in research-based gaming”, and researchers become more aware of the inequities of “discursive gaming” (Voorhees 2012) like the carbon footprint of contemporary gaming technology and the disproportionate influence of larger publishers and platform owners. To address this issue, the article develops a comparative perspective on “ecocritical” (Bohunicky 2017) modifications of commercial games (ecomods) as an ongoing discursive process. Ecomods for two major game franchises – The Sims and Civilization – are analyzed as communicative acts over time, quoting, re-phrasing or outright challenging the procedural rhetoric of the original games. The definition of eco games as boundary objects (van Pelt et al. 2015) is thereby adapted to the characteristic multiplicity and redundancy of ecomods. This perspective acknowledges how modding can affect the games as communication infrastructure, e.g. considering that both franchises recently ‘responded’ with official expansions including environmental themes, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (2019) and The Sims 4: Eco Lifestyle (2020). To conclude, the article briefly reports on an exploratory workshop, in which students applied ecomodding techniques to repurpose Epic Games’ Fortnite (2017-) as a platform for academic communication on the climate crisis. Due to the game’s immense popularity, climate researchers and activists have tentatively used Fortnite, e.g. via the ‘ClimateFortnite’ channel , where players can “find climate researchers and others discussing global warming while they play” (Boykoff 2019, 22), or a 2019 WWF ad campaign . These approaches, however, are characteristically relegated to small existing ‘niches’ within the “ecology of communication” (Altheide 2019) surrounding the game because they cannot modify or otherwise appropriate its contents. The workshop outlines how ecomodding not only constitutes a uniquely productive site for societal debate, but may also hold potential for augmenting academic communication on the climate crisis

Strategic planning of the integrated urban wastewater system using adaptation pathways (article)

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordThe dataset associated with this article is located in ORE at: https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.2443Emerging threats such as climate change and urbanisation pose an unprecedented challenge to integrated management of urban wastewater systems, which are expected to function in a reliable, resilient and sustainable manner regardless of future conditions. Traditional long term planning is rather limited in developing no-regret strategies that avoid maladaptive lock-ins in the near term and allow for flexibility in the long term. In this study, a novel adaptation pathways approach for urban wastewater management is developed in order to explore the compliance and adaptability potential of intervention strategies in a long term operational period, accounting for different future scenarios and multiple performance objectives in terms of reliability, resilience and sustainability. This multi-criteria multi-scenario approach implements a regret-based method to assess the relative performance of two types of adaptation strategies: (I) standalone strategies (i.e. green or grey strategies only); and (II) hybrid strategies (i.e. combined green and grey strategies). A number of adaptation thresholds (i.e. the points at which the current strategy can no longer meet defined objectives) are defined to identify compliant domains (i.e. periods of time in a future scenario when the performance of a strategy can meet the targets). The results obtained from a case study illustrate the trade-off between adapting to short term pressures and addressing long term challenges. Green strategies show the highest performance in simultaneously meeting near and long term needs, while grey strategies are found less adaptable to changing circumstances. In contrast, hybrid strategies are effective in delivering both short term compliance and long term adaptability. It is also shown that the proposed adaption pathways method can contribute to the identification of adaptation strategies that are developed as future conditions unfold, allowing for more flexibility and avoiding long term commitment to strategies that may cause maladaptation. This provides insights into the near term and long term planning of ensuring the reliability, resilience and sustainability of integrated urban drainage systems.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC

Affective adaptation = effective transformation? Shifting the politics of climate change adaptation and transformation from the status quo

Alarming rates of environmental change have catalyzed scholars to call for fundamental transformations in social-political and economic relations. Yet cautionary tales about how power and politics are constitutive of these efforts fill the literature. We show how a relational framing of adaptation and transformation demands a political, cross-scalar, and socionatural analysis to probe the affects and effects of climate change and better grasp how transformative change unfolds. We bring affect theory into conversation with the literature on adaptation politics, socio-environmental transformations, subjectivity, and our empirical work to frame our analysis around three under investigated aspects of transformation: (i) the uncertain and unpredictable relations that constitute socionatures; (ii) other ways of knowing; and (iii) the affective and emotional relations that form a basis for action. Affective adaptation represents a different ontological take on transformation by reframing the socionatural, normative and ethical aspects as relational, uncertain, and performative. This directs analytical attention to processes rather than outcomes. The emphasis on the encounter between bodies in affect theory points to the need for experiential and embodied ways of knowing climate to effect transformative change. Effective transformation requires recognizing uncertainty and unpredictability as part of transformative processes. This is not because all outcomes are acceptable, but rather because uncertainty and unpredictability are elements which help generate affects (action) and emotional commitment to shared human and more than human relations in action, projects, and policies. This article is categorized under: Vulnerability and Adaptation to Climate Change > Values-Based Approach to Vulnerability and Adaptatio