Contested modelling

We suggest that the role and function of expert computational modelling in real-world decision-making needs scrutiny and practices need to change. We discuss some empirical and theory-based improvements to the coupling of the modelling process and the real world, including social and behavioural processes, which we have expressed as a set of questions that we believe need to be answered by all projects engaged in such modelling.  These are based on a systems analysis of four research initiatives, covering different scales and timeframes, and addressing the complexity of intervention in a sustainability context. Our proposed improvements require new approaches for analysing the relationship between a project’s models and its publics.  They reflect what we believe is a necessary and beneficial dialogue between the realms of expert scientific modelling and systems thinking.  This paper is an attempt to start that process, itself reflecting a robust dialogue between two practitioners sat within differing traditions, puzzling how to integrate perspectives and achieve wider participation in researching this problem space.&nbsp

The Topology of Harry Potter: Exploring Higher Dimensions in Young Adult Fantasy Literature

As one of the most beloved series in children’s literature today, the Harry Potter books excite students of all ages with the adventures of living in a magical world. Magical objects (e.g., bottom-less handbags, the Knight Bus, time turners, and moving portraits) can inspire generalizations to mathematical concepts that would be relevant in an undergraduate geometry or topology course. Intuitive explanations for some of the magical objects connect to abstract mathematical ideas. Weoffer a typology with a total of five categories, including Three Dimensions in Two Dimensions, Higher Dimensions in Three Dimensions, Two and Three Dimensional Movement, Higher Dimensional Movement, and Higher Dimensional Traces. These categories attempt to explain supernatural events from the wizarding world using mathematical reasoning in order to increase engagement in topics from topology to differential geometry. Our pedagogical goal is to pique student interest by linking these abstract concepts to familiar examples from the world of Harry Potter. Put on your Ravenclaw robe or Gryffindor scarf and join us

Grand Valley Cigarette Butt Recycling Initiative

What is Grand Valley State University planning to do with all of the cigarette butts that have now resurfaced due to the melting of the snow and those that fill up the collection containers? The problem of cigarette butts littering the ground is common and several different universities and cities have already taken steps to make sure that this problem ceases from happening time after time. Cities, universities and individuals have started to work with TerraCycle to recycle the cigarette butts. In the following document you will find information about the issue surrounding cigarette butts as a form of litter, past campus initiatives, as well as how working with TerraCycle is both a sustainable and cost effective option. We will look at how to implement this program on Grand Valley State University’s campus and how to maintain the program once it is initially launched

Creating New Strategies to Enhance Postpartum Health and Wellness

Over the past 5 years there have been a number of new initiatives focused on improving birth outcomes and reducing infant mortality, including a renewed focus on the complex interactions between motherhood and infancy that influence lifelong health trajectories. Beginning in 2012, the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) facilitated a series of meetings to enhance coordination across initiatives. Emerging from these conversations was a shared desire across stakeholders to reimagine the postpartum visit and improve postpartum care and wellness. AMCHP convened a Postpartum Think-Tank Meeting in 2014 to map the system of postpartum care and identify levers for its transformation. The meeting findings are presented in an infographic which frames the challenges and proposed solutions from the woman's perspective. The infographic describes maternal issues and concerns along with a concise summary of the recommended solutions. Strategies include creating integrated services and seamless care transitions from preconception through postpartum and well-baby; business, community, and government support, including paid parental leave, health insurance and spaces for new parents to meet each other; and mother-centered care, including quality visits on her schedule with complete and culturally appropriate information. These solutions catalyze a postpartum system of care that supports women, children, and families by infusing new ideas and capitalizing on existing opportunities and resources

Resolving ecological feedbacks on the ocean carbon sink in Earth system models

The Earth's oceans are one of the largest sinks in the Earth system for anthropogenic CO2 emissions, acting as a negative feedback on climate change. Earth system models project that climate change will lead to a weakening ocean carbon uptake rate as warm water holds less dissolved CO2 and as biological productivity declines. However, most Earth system models do not incorporate the impact of warming on bacterial remineralisation and rely on simplified representations of plankton ecology that do not resolve the potential impact of climate change on ecosystem structure or elemental stoichiometry. Here, we use a recently developed extension of the cGEnIE (carbon-centric Grid Enabled Integrated Earth system model), ecoGEnIE, featuring a trait-based scheme for plankton ecology (ECOGEM), and also incorporate cGEnIE's temperature-dependent remineralisation (TDR) scheme. This enables evaluation of the impact of both ecological dynamics and temperature-dependent remineralisation on particulate organic carbon (POC) export in response to climate change. We find that including TDR increases cumulative POC export relative to default runs due to increased nutrient recycling (+∼1.3 %), whereas ECOGEM decreases cumulative POC export by enabling a shift to smaller plankton classes (−∼0.9 %). However, interactions with carbonate chemistry cause opposite sign responses for the carbon sink in both cases: TDR leads to a smaller sink relative to default runs (−∼1.0 %), whereas ECOGEM leads to a larger sink (+∼0.2 %). Combining TDR and ECOGEM results in a net strengthening of POC export (+∼0.1 %) and a net reduction in carbon sink (−∼0.7 %) relative to default. These results illustrate the degree to which ecological dynamics and biodiversity modulate the strength of the biological pump, and demonstrate that Earth system models need to incorporate ecological complexity in order to resolve non-linear climate–biosphere feedbacks

Chemistry and pathways to net zero for sustainability

Chemistry needs to play a central role in achieving ‘net zero’ emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere to prevent changes to the climate that will have catastrophic impacts for humanity and for many ecosystems on the planet. International action to limit global warming to 1.5 °C has framed as a key goal the reduction of global emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere. Chemistry underpins innovative approaches to reducing emission of the key GHGs, comprising CO2, CH4, N2O and fluorinated gases, and to the recapture of gases already in the atmosphere. Rapid progress is needed in the application of green and sustainable chemistry and material circularity principles in developing these approaches worldwide. Of critical importance will be the incorporation of systems thinking, recognition of planetary boundaries that define safe operating spaces for Earth systems, and an overall reorientation of chemistry towards its roles in stewardship of the Earth's material resources and in sustainability for people and the planet.</p

Standardised Test Scores and Educational Achievement in Australia

This thesis is comprised of four self-contained papers utilising standardised test score data, specifically data from the Australian National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). The analysis presented by this thesis is particularly pertinent given the recent publication of the findings of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools, chaired by David Gonski AC. The first paper provides a survey on the uses of standardised test score data for economic analysis, and a discussion of the uses and limitations of the NAPLAN data set. This paper establishes two main areas for analysis. Firstly, the analysis of school funding policy, given the provision of schools’ financial data enabled by the My School website, which will be explored in the second paper of this thesis. Next, the analysis of how student background characteristics may impact achievement, which is analysed further in the third and fourth papers of this thesis. As outlined above, the second paper focuses on the topic of school funding. This paper explores the causal impact of school funding on student achievement in NAPLAN. Using school-average test score data paired with funding information for each school, we determine how the three different types of funding received by Australian schools impact test scores differently depending on sector and state. We find, in general, that funding from the federal government has the least beneficial impact, with state government funding and parent fees more likely to provide the greatest benefit to schools. These results have a significant policy impact, indicating that funding is most beneficial when provided at as local a level as possible. The third paper of this thesis turns to the socio-educational determinants of educational achievement in Australian schoolchildren. We find that students with an Indigenous or language other than English background are at risk of poor performance, as well as students with a parent who did not complete year 12, does not have a university degree or is not employed. Secondly, we find that private schooling makes a student more likely to meet and surpass national benchmarks for achievement, on average. However, the probability of a private school student performing in the higher NAPLAN bands changes based on their other socio-educational features. This thesis concludes with a short fourth paper that provides another perspective to predicting the event of ‘low achievement’ by implementing machine learning strategies. Together, these papers constitute an overview of the possibilities for econometric analysis of the NAPLAN data.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Economics, 201

A shared future:Chemistry's engagement is essential for resilience of people and planet

Strengthening resilience—elasticity or adaptive capacity—is essential in responding to the wide range of natural hazards and anthropogenic changes humanity faces. Chemistry's roles in resilience are explored for the first time, with its technical capacities set in the wider contexts of cross-disciplinary working and the intersecting worlds of science, society and policy. The roles are framed by chemistry's contributions to the sustainability of people and planet, examined via the human security framework's four material aspects of food, health, economic and environmental security. As the science of transformation of matter, chemistry is deeply involved in these material aspects and in their interfacing with human security's three societal and governance aspects of personal, community and political security. Ultimately, strengthening resilience requires making choices about the present use of resources as a hedge against future hazards and adverse events, with these choices being co-determined by technical capacities and social and political will. It is argued that, to intensify its contributions to resilience, chemistry needs to take action along at least three major lines: (i) taking an integrative approach to the field of ‘chemistry and resilience’; (ii) rethinking how the chemical industry operates; and (iii) engaging more with society and policy-makers