Lost and damaged? : the roles of civil society stakeholders involved in the development of loss and damage policy and the interplay with international loss and damage negotiations : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of International Development, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Loss and damage is the impacts of climate change, when adaptation and mitigation measures fail the result is loss and damage. The loss and damage agenda aims to hold countries that were typically seen as polluters accountable for the yet unknown and undefined damages caused by climate change. The idea behind loss and damage is a step forward from the thinking of adaptation and mitigation to the idea that regardless of these two actions globally, some people/countries will still be affected by climate impacts and that these countries deserve some level of compensation/global financial support as compensation (Faruque & Khan 2013). Loss and damage is an ever-growing policy matter, political issue and lived reality for many. This thesis explores the development of loss and damage policy within Bangladesh, the first country to attempt to develop a national level policy, analysing the way in which key stakeholders are navigating national level policy development and negotiating loss and damage at the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties. The thesis research took place in two field locations: Dhaka (the Capital of Bangladesh) throughout 2018-2019, and the Conference of Parties 24 international meeting on climate change held in Katowice, Poland in December 2018. The research was conducted using qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews, observations of conference proceedings and document analysis. The thesis found the following key results. That the lack of an instituted loss and damage policy means that a mechanism for actions and practical steps does not exist. Bangladesh has shown a remarkable level of leadership and has the potential through a national level policy to expand this leadership role. The role of CSOs and civil society members as advocates has been pivotal in loss and damage policy briefing and development at the local level. Developing country delegates and civil society representatives have contributed significantly towards the framing of loss and damage. Loss and damage challenges the traditional perceptions of Traditional Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). The use of constructed ambiguity is one of the many tactics used to evade responsibility by the global North. The importance of justice arguments are for demanding global North countries be held accountable. The ability to develop a framework and funding structure to tackle loss and damage would largely improve current climate change policy at the national level in Bangladesh

Reducing Versatile Bat Wing Conformations to a 1-DoF Machine

Recent works have shown success in mimicking the flapping flight of bats on the robotic platform Bat Bot (B2). This robot has only five actuators but retains the ability to flap and fold-unfold its wings in flight. However, this bat-like robot has been unable to perform folding-unfolding of its wings within the period of a wingbeat cycle, about 100 ms. The DC motors operating the spindle mechanisms cannot attain this folding speed. Biological bats rely on this periodic folding of their wings during the upstroke of the wingbeat cycle. It reduces the moment of inertia of the wings and limits the negative lift generated during the upstroke. Thus, we consider it important to achieve wing folding during the upstroke. A mechanism was designed to couple the flapping cycle to the folding cycle of the robot. We then use biological data to further optimize the mechanism such that the kinematic synergies of the robot best match those of a biological bat. This ensures that folding is performed at the correct point in the wingbeat cycle

Nurses' motivations to leave the nursing profession: A qualitative meta-aggregation

Aim: To systematically provide an overview of the qualitative evidence available on the motivations for nurses to leave the nursing profession. Design: A qualitative systematic review using the meta-aggregation design of the Joanna Briggs Institute. Data Sources: Qualitative studies in English, dating from 2010 until January 2023, were obtained from CINAHL, PsycINFO and PubMed. Review Methods: Studies were selected using predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Quality assessment was done using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research. The assessment of confidence in the review findings was done according to the ConQual approach. Results: Nine papers that investigated nurses' motivations to leave the profession were included. We developed four synthesized findings from 11 synthesized categories and 31 categories to reflect nurses' motivations to leave the profession, including (1) challenging work environment, (2) emotional distress, (3) disappointment about nursing reality, and (4) culture of hierarchy and discrimination. Conclusion: This review provides an in-depth and meaningful understanding of motivations for nurses to leave the profession. Among others, poor working conditions, a lack of opportunities for career development, a lack of support from managers, work-related stress, a discrepancy between nursing education and practice and bullying behaviour were motivations to leave the profession, which calls for targeted action to retain nurses in the profession. Impact: Findings of this study shine a light on reasons why nurses leave the profession, providing evidence to support nurse managers and policymakers to develop retention strategies to move out of current crisis into recovery of sustainable global healthcare. Patient or Public Contribution: There was no direct patient or caregiver contribution to this study because this study originated from the process of a Master study. However, two of the authors are still involved in clinical nursing practice and provided the necessary link between research and practice

Describing Robotic Bat Flight with Stable Periodic Orbits

From a dynamic system point of view, bat locomotion stands out among other forms of flight. During a large part of bat wingbeat cycle the moving body is not in a static equilibrium. This is in sharp contrast to what we observe in other simpler forms of flight such as insects, which stay at their static equilibrium. Encouraged by biological examinations that have revealed bats exhibit periodic and stable limit cycles, this work demonstrates that one effective approach to stabilize articulated flying robots with bat morphology is locating feasible limit cycles for these robots; then, designing controllers that retain the closed-loop system trajectories within a bounded neighborhood of the designed periodic orbits. This control design paradigm has been evaluated in practice on a recently developed bio-inspired robot called Bat Bot (B2)

Genomic and Genetic Evidence for the Loss of Umami Taste in Bats

Umami taste is responsible for sensing monosodium glutamate, nucleotide enhancers, and other amino acids that are appetitive to vertebrates and is one of the five basic tastes that also include sour, salty, sweet, and bitter. To study how ecological factors, especially diets, impact the evolution of the umami taste, we examined the umami taste receptor gene Tas1r1 in a phylogenetically diverse group of bats including fruit eaters, insect eaters, and blood feeders. We found that Tas1r1 is absent, unamplifiable, or pseudogenized in each of the 31 species examined, including the genome sequences of two species, suggesting the loss of the umami taste in most, if not all, bats regardless of their food preferences. Most strikingly, vampire bats have also lost the sweet taste receptor gene Tas1r2 and the gene required for both umami and sweet tastes (Tas1r3), being the first known mammalian group to lack two of the five tastes. The puzzling absence of the umami taste in bats calls for a better understanding of the roles that this taste plays in the daily life of vertebrates

Functional correlates of skull shape in Chiroptera: feeding and echolocation adaptations.

Morphological, functional and behavioural adaptations of bats are among the most diverse within mammals. A strong association between bat skull morphology and feeding behaviour has been suggested previously. However, morphological variation related to other drivers of adaptation, in particular echolocation, remains understudied. We assessed variation in skull morphology with respect to ecology (diet and emission type) and function (bite force, masticatory muscles and echolocation characteristics) using geometric morphometrics and comparative methods. Our study suggests that variation in skull shape of 10 bat families is the result of adaptations to broad dietary categories and sound emission types (oral or nasal). Skull shape correlates with echolocation parameters only in a subsample of insectivorous species, possibly because they (almost) entirely rely on this sensory system for locating and capturing prey. Insectivores emitting low frequencies are characterised by a ventrally tilted rostrum, a trait not associated with feeding parameters. This result questions the validity of a trade-off between feeding and echolocation function. Our study advances understanding of the relationship between skull morphology and specific features of echolocation and suggests that evolutionary constraints due to echolocation may differ between different groups within the Chiroptera

A nesting of the Veery.

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