Adaptation requires attuning to shifting temporal patterns

Communal life is characterized by the shared timing of human and environmental events. Climate change is disrupting these timings, creating mismatches in these coordinated temporal patterns and requiring adaptive governance

‘My new routine’: Assessing the impact of citizen science on climate adaptation in Bangladesh

Under embargo until: 2021-01-22Citizen science is put forward as a method for extending science to include communities in learning about, and adapting to, climate variability and change in the places they live. But it is difficult to find evidence of how citizen science influences climate adaptation governance. The citizen science field lacks the assessment frameworks and empirical studies for understanding impacts on citizen scientists’ common adaptive capacities for supporting social processes of adaptation. In addressing this gap, this paper describes a citizen science initiative carried out with communities in northeast Bangladesh, and assesses how it contributed to local governance capacity for climate adaptation. In doing so, it develops and tests a novel framework that assesses citizen science’s contributions a high-quality knowledge base, and to five different capital stocks. The assessment saw high increases in citizen scientists’ human capital relative to their awareness and understanding of local rainfall; learning that they applied in adaptive practices at work and at home, and local leadership. There were also high increases in social capital among citizen scientists, but more moderate increases in technological and resource capital, and in political capital. There was some evidence of the citizen science being used to support public adaptation decision-making. The initiative had the least impact on institutional capital.acceptedVersio

Extended Peer Communities: Appraising the contributions of tacit knowledges in climate change decision-making

This paper explores the implications of assessing tacit knowledges of climatic change in extended peer communities, as applied in two European research projects on climate action. Post-normal science (PNS) proposes the extension of the peer community to co-produce better quality knowledge for decision-making on issues like climate change, where facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent. The paper has two aims. The first, more practical, is to explore methods for critically appraising tacit knowledges for climate action, using the example of two ongoing research projects. The second, more conceptual, is to improve practices and discourses surrounding tacit knowledge in current PNS praxis, with close consideration to the implications and challenges involved in including these forms of knowledge in decision making processes. By exploring theoretical perspectives on the topic of tacit knowledge, four challenges facing extended peer communities in engaging with tacit forms of knowledge have been identified: communication, representation, appropriation, and assessment.publishedVersio

Beyond rules: How institutional cultures and climate governance interact

Institutions have a central role in climate change governance. But while there is a flourishing literature on institutions' formal rules, processes, and organizational forms, scholars lament a relative lack of attention to institutions' informal side; their cultures. It is important to study institutions' cultures because it is through culture that people relate to institutional norms and rules in taking climate action. This review uncovers what work has been done on institutional cultures and climate change, discerns common themes around which this scholarship coheres, and advances and argument for why institutional cultures matter. We employed a systematic literature review to assemble a set of 54 articles with a shared concern for how climate change and institutional cultures concurrently affect each other. The articles provided evidence of a nascent field, emerging over the past 5–10 years and fragmented across literatures. This field draws on diverse concepts of institutionalism for revealing quite different expressions of culture, and is mostly grounded in empirical studies. These disparate studies compellingly demonstrate, from different perspectives, that institutional cultures do indeed matter for implementing climate governance. Indeed, the articles converge in providing empirical evidence of eight key sites of interaction between climate change and institutional cultures: worldviews, values, logics, gender, risk acceptance, objects, power, and relationality. These eight sites are important foci for examining and effecting changes to institutions and their cultures; showing how institutional cultures shape responses to climate change, and how climate change shapes institutional cultures.publishedVersio

Co-producing representations of summer rainfall in Bangladesh

Climate adaptation governance increasingly investigates the cultural capacities of communities to cope with climate variability and change. This paper reports on research of the symbolic representations of summer rainfall in the cultural repertoires guiding diverse institutionalised fields of activity in Sylhet Division. The research conducted interviews and co-created ‘cognitive maps’ with communities, to critically reflect on their changing seasonal symbols. The study revealed a common stock of summer symbols in Sylhet communities, which individuals reconfigure for strategizing and justifying particular practices. Symbols are stable but not static. As people’s uses of knowledge systems change—moving toward scientific representations—so too does their use of symbols. Moreover, environmental and climatic changes, such as a drying summer, are undermining long-held semiotic templates. Many local and traditional signs no longer hold, leaving communities without cultural templates for timely seasonal action. This work highlights the importance of cultural frameworks for organising communities’ seasonal adaptation, and the imperative for critically revisiting frameworks in rapid flux.publishedVersio

Local narratives of change as an entry point for building urban climate resilience

Cities face increasing risks due to climate change, and many cities are actively working towards increasing their climate resilience. Climate change-induced risks and interventions to reduce these risks do not only impact urban risk management systems and infrastructures, but also people's daily lives. In order to build public support for climate adaptation and resilience-building and stimulate collaboration between authorities and citizens, it is necessary that adaptation and resilience-building are locally meaningful. Thus, interventions should be rooted in citizens’ concerns and aspirations for their city. Urban policymakers and researchers have started the search for better citizen participation in adaptation. However, tools to connect the relatively strategic and long-term notions of adaptation to a gradually changing climate held by planners and scientists with how citizens experience today's climate and weather remain elusive. This paper investigates the use of ‘narratives of change’ as an approach to elicit perceptions of past, present and future weather, water, and climate, and how these relate to citizens’ desired futures. We tested this by eliciting and comparing narratives of change from authorities and from citizens in the Dutch city of Dordrecht. Our analysis of the process showed that historical events, embedded in local memory and identity, have a surprisingly strong impact on how climate change is perceived and acted upon today. This contributes to an awareness and sense of urgency of some climate risks (e.g. flood risks). However, it also shifts attention away from other risks (e.g. intensified heat stress). The analysis highlighted commonalities, like shared concerns about climate change and desires to collaborate, but also differences in how climate change, impacts, and action are conceptualized. There are possibilities for collaboration and mutual learning, as well as areas of potential disagreement and conflict. We conclude that narratives are a useful tool to better connect the governance of climate adaptation with peoples’ daily experience of climate risks and climate resilience, thereby potentially increasing public support for and participation in resilience-building.</p

Ambulance clinicians’ attitudes to older patients’ self‐determination when the patient has impaired decision‐making ability: A Delphi study

Abstract: Objective: The proportion of older people is increasing and reflects in the demand on ambulance services (AS). Patients can be more vulnerable and increasingly dependent, especially when their decision‐making ability is impaired. Self‐determination in older people has a positive relation to quality of life and can raise ethical conflicts in AS. Hence, the aim of this study was to empirically explore attitudes among Swedish ambulance clinicians (ACs) regarding older patients’ self‐determination in cases where patients have impaired decision‐making ability, and who are in urgent need of care. Materials and methods: An explorative design was adopted. A Delphi technique was used, comprising four rounds, involving a group (N = 31) of prehospital emergency nurses (n = 14), registered nurses (n = 10) and emergency medical technicians (n = 7). Focus group conversations (Round 1) and questionnaires (Rounds 2–4) generated data. Round 1 was analysed using manifest content analysis, which ultimately resulted in the creation of discrete items. Each item was rated with a five‐point Likert scale together with free‐text answers. Consensus (≥70%) was calculated by trichotomising the Likert scale. Results: Round 1 identified 108 items which were divided into four categories: (1) attitudes regarding the patient (n = 35), (2) attitudes regarding the patient relationship (n = 8), (3) attitudes regarding oneself and one's colleagues (n = 45), and (4) attitudes regarding other involved factors (n = 20). In Rounds 2–4, one item was identified in the free text from Round 2, generating a total of 109 items. After four rounds, 72 items (62%) reached consensus. Conclusions: The findings highlight the complexity of ACs’ attitudes towards older patients’ self‐determination. The respect of older patients’ self‐determination is challenged by the patient, other healthcare personnel, significant others and/or colleagues. The study provided a unique opportunity to explore self‐determination and shared decision‐making. AS have to provide continued ethical training, for example to increase the use of simulation‐based training or moral case deliberations in order to strengthen the ACs’ moral abilities within their professional practice. Implications for practice: Ambulance services must develop opportunities to provide continued training within this topic. One option would be to increase the use of simulation‐based training, focusing on ethical aspects of the care. Another option might be to facilitate moral case deliberations to strengthen the ACs’ abilities to manage these issues while being able to share experiences with peers. These types of interventions should illuminate the importance of the topic for the individual AC, which, in turn, may strengthen and develop the caring abilities within an integrated care team.Peer reviewe

Distinct conformational stability and functional activity of four highly homologous endonuclease colicins

The family of conserved colicin DNases E2, E7, E8, and E9 are microbial toxins that kill bacteria through random degradation of the chromosomal DNA. In the present work, we compare side by side the conformational stabilities of these four highly homologous colicin DNases. Our results indicate that the apo-forms of these colicins are at room temperature and neutral pH in a dynamic conformational equilibrium between at least two quite distinct conformers. We show that the thermal stabilities of the apo-proteins differ by up to 20degreesC. The observed differences correlate with the observed conformational behavior, that is, the tendency of the protein to form either an open, less stable or closed, more stable conformation in solution, as deduced by both tryptophan accessibility studies and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Given these surprising structural differences, we next probed the catalytic activity of the four DNases and also observed a significant variation in relative activities. However, no unequivocal link between the activity of the protein and its thermal and structural stability could easily be made. The observed differences in conformational and functional properties of the four colicin DNases are surprising given that they are a closely related ( greater than or equal to65% identity) family of enzymes containing a highly conserved (betabetaalpha-Me) active site motif. The different behavior of the apo-enzymes must therefore most likely depend on more subtle changes in amino acid sequences, most likely in the exosite region (residues 72-98) that is required for specific high-affinity binding of the cognate immunity protein

The Implications of COVID-19 on Chinese Consumer Preferences for Lamb Meat

This study assessed if Chinese consumer attitudes towards a range of lamb attributes (such as origin, food safety, appearance, taste, price), and their opinions of New Zealand lamb (9- and 7-point Likert scales, respectively), had changed since the outbreak COVID-19. The same survey was carried out in Shanghai and Beijing pre (December 2018) and post COVID-19 (November 2020), ~9 months after China’s initial outbreak, with 500 and 523 consumers, respectively. From December 2018 to November 2020, there was an increase in the proportion of Chinese consumers purchasing red meat online or from a butcher, and cooking their lamb well-done. In contrast, there were minimal differences in Chinese consumer ratings between December 2018 and November 2020 for different lamb attributes and opinions of New Zealand lamb. Cluster analysis revealed that many consumers (140 in December 2018/376 in November 2020) used only a small portion of the high end of the scale when rating lamb attributes, resulting in little differences between the attributes. This study suggests COVID-19 has enhanced some food safety related behaviors but had little effect on Chinese opinions and preferences for New Zealand lamb attributes. It also highlights that survey design should be carefully considered when collecting responses from Chinese consumers.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

An extreme proto-cluster of luminous dusty starbursts in the early Universe

We report the identification of an extreme proto-cluster of galaxies in the early Universe whose core (nicknamed Distant Red Core, DRC) is formed by at least ten dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), confirmed to lie at $z_{\rm spec} = 4.002$ via detection of [CI](1-0), $^{12}$CO(6-5), $^{12}$CO(4-3), $^{12}$CO(2-1) and ${\rm H_2O} (2_{11} - 2_{02})$ emission lines, detected using ALMA and ATCA. The spectroscopically-confirmed components of the proto-cluster are distributed over a ${\rm 260\, kpc \times 310\, kpc}$ region and have a collective obscured star-formation rate (SFR) of $\sim 6500 \, M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1}$, considerably higher than has been seen before in any proto-cluster of galaxies or over-densities of DSFGs at $z \gtrsim 4$. Most of the star formation is taking place in luminous DSFGs since no Ly$\alpha$ emitters are detected in the proto-cluster core, apart from a Ly$\alpha$ blob located next to one of the DRC dusty components and extending over $60\,{\rm kpc}$. The total obscured SFR of the proto-cluster could rise to ${\rm SFR} \sim 14,400 \, M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1}$ if all the members of an over-density of bright DSFGs discovered around DRC in a wide-field LABOCA 870-$\mu$m image are part of the same structure. The total halo mass of DRC could be as high as $\sim 4.4 \times 10^{13}\,M_\odot$ and could be the progenitor of a Coma-like cluster at $z = 0$. The relatively short gas-depletion times of the DRC components suggest either the presence of a mechanism able to trigger extreme star formation simultaneously in galaxies spread over a few hundred kpc or the presence of gas flows from the cosmic web able to sustain star formation over several hundred million years.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Minor updates added, including a change of the source name. Comments welcom