Public values for improved water security for domestic and environmental use

A choice modelling valuation exercise was recently undertaken across several countries to assess the tradeoffs that households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental condition in waterways, and increased water costs. The results from the Queensland survey are reported in this paper. Also discussed are some of the tradeoffs involved in assuring the integrity of an international survey while retaining sufficient local context to make the choice modelling exercise both realistic and meaningful.Choice modelling, water scarcity, water use tradeoffs, international survey, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Environmental Economics and Policy,

Low-Fat Diet With Caloric Restriction Reduces White Matter Microglia Activation During Aging

Rodent models of both aging and obesity are characterized by inflammation in specific brain regions, notably the corpus callosum, fornix, and hypothalamus. Microglia, the resident macrophages of the central nervous system, are important for brain development, neural support, and homeostasis. However, the effects of diet and lifestyle on microglia during aging are only partly understood. Here, we report alterations in microglia phenotype and functions in different brain regions of mice on a high-fat diet (HFD) or low-fat diet (LFD) during aging and in response to voluntary running wheel exercise. We compared the expression levels of genes involved in immune response, phagocytosis, and metabolism in the hypothalamus of 6-month-old HFD and LFD mice. We also compared the immune response of microglia from HFD or LFD mice to peripheral inflammation induced by intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Finally, we investigated the effect of diet, physical exercise, and caloric restriction (40% reduction compared to ad libitum intake) on microglia in 24-month-old HFD and LFD mice. Changes in diet caused morphological changes in microglia, but did not change the microglia response to LPS-induced systemic inflammation. Expression of phagocytic markers (i.e., Mac-2/Lgals3, Dectin-1/Clec7a, and CD16/CD32) in the white matter microglia of 24-month-old brain was markedly decreased in calorically restricted LFD mice. In conclusion, LFD resulted in reduced activation of microglia, which might be an underlying mechanism for the protective role of caloric restriction during aging-associated decline

Altimetric observation of wave attenuation through the Antarctic marginal ice zone using ICESat-2

The Antarctic marginal ice zone (MIZ) is a highly dynamic region where sea ice interacts with ocean surface waves generated in ice-free areas of the Southern Ocean. Improved large-scale (satellite-based) estimates of MIZ extent and variability are crucial for understanding atmosphere–ice–ocean interactions and biological processes and detection of change therein. Legacy methods for defining the MIZ are typically based on sea ice concentration thresholds and do not directly relate to the fundamental physical processes driving MIZ variability. To address this, new techniques have been developed to measure the spatial extent of significant wave height attenuation in sea ice from variations in Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) surface heights. The poleward wave penetration limit (boundary) is defined as the location where significant wave height attenuation equals the estimated error in significant wave height. Extensive automated and manual acceptance/rejection criteria are employed to ensure confidence in along-track wave penetration width estimates due to significant cloud contamination of ICESat-2 data or where wave attenuation is not observed. Analysis of 304 ICESat-2 tracks retrieved from four months of 2019 (February, May, September and December) reveals that sea-ice-concentration-derived MIZ width estimates are far narrower (by a factor of ∼ 7 on average) than those from the new technique presented here. These results suggest that indirect methods of MIZ estimation based on sea ice concentration are insufficient for representing physical processes that define the MIZ. Improved large-scale measurements of wave attenuation in the MIZ will play an important role in increasing our understanding of this complex sea ice zone

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Public values for improved water security for domestic and environmental use

Metrics for evaluating environmental trade-offs can be developed with varying levels of consistency across case study sites. A key issue is whether standard evaluation experiments can be conducted over multiple sites, or whether experiments have to be tailored to each case study application. To test how useful a consistent approach is, choice modelling (CM) has been used in a number of countries. Choice modelling assess the trade-offs households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental conditions in waterways, and increased water costs. This research paper reports the results of the Queensland survey. The results show that it is not possible to downplay case study framing issues and that it is not appropriate to standardise applications across case studies that have different characteristics

Public values for improved water security for domestic and environmental use

A choice modelling valuation exercise was recently undertaken across several countries to assess the tradeoffs that households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental condition in waterways, and increased water costs. The results from the Queensland survey are reported in this paper. Also discussed are some of the tradeoffs involved in assuring the integrity of an international survey while retaining sufficient local context to make the choice modelling exercise both realistic and meaningful

Public values for improved water security for domestic and environmental use

Metrics for evaluating environmental trade-offs can be developed with varying levels of consistency across case study sites. A key issue is whether standard evaluation experiments can be conducted over multiple sites, or whether experiments have to be tailored to each case study application. To test how useful a consistent approach is, choice modeling (CM) has been used in a number of countries. Choice modeling assess the trade-offs households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental conditions in waterways, and increased water costs. This research paper reports the results of the Queensland survey. The results show that it is not possible to downplay case study framing issues and that it is not appropriate to standardise applications across case studies that have different characteristics.choice modelling, water, environment, framing

Seawater carbonate chemistry and sperm count and fertilization rate of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis

The continued emissions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide are causing progressive ocean acidification (OA). While deleterious effects of OA on biological systems are well documented in the growth of calcifying organisms, lesser studied impacts of OA include potential effects on gamete interactions that determine fertilization, which are likely to influence the many marine species that spawn gametes externally. Here, we explore the effects of OA on the signalling mechanisms that enable sperm to track egg-derived chemicals (sperm chemotaxis). We focus on the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, where sperm chemotaxis enables eggs to bias fertilization in favour of genetically compatible males. Using an experimental design based on the North Carolina II factorial breeding design, we test whether the experimental manipulation of seawater pH (comparing ambient conditions to predicted end-of-century scenarios) alters patterns of differential sperm chemotaxis. While we find no evidence that male–female gametic compatibility is impacted by OA, we do find that individual males exhibit consistent variation in how their sperm perform in lowered pH levels. This finding of individual variability in the capacity of ejaculates to respond to chemoattractants under acidified conditions suggests that climate change will exert considerable pressure on male genotypes that can withstand an increasingly hostile fertilization environment

Preference certainty and consistency in repeated choice experiments

Rolfe, JC ORCiD: 0000-0001-7659-7040The main objective of this study is to examine how repeated choice affects preference learning. We test different hypotheses related to preference refinement and ask respondents in the choice experiment also to report their experienced certainty when going through the choice tasks. In a split-sample test, we show that the follow-up preference certainty questions are procedural invariant. The self-reported certainty results indicate that learning occurs, but econometric testing procedures did not identify any significant impact of learning effects on parameter estimates or variance across choice tasks. A choice consistency test suggests that preferences in choice experiments are stable and coherent

Public values for improved water security for domestic and environmental use

Developing metrics for evaluating environmental tradeoffs can be done with varying levels of consistency across case study sites. A key issue is to determine if standard evaluation experiments can be conducted over multiple sites or whether experiments have to be tailored to each case study application. To test the usefulness of a consistent approach, a choice modelling valuation exercise has been undertaken across several countries to assess the tradeoffs that households are prepared to make between water use restrictions, maintaining environmental condition in waterways, and increased water costs. The results from the Queensland survey are reported in this paper. The results indicate that it is not possible to downplay framing issues at the case study level, and that it is not appropriate to standardize applications across case studies with differing characteristics