People and practices : fostering transitions toward sustainability through transdisciplinary inquiry and individual, social and organisational learning

University of Technology, Sydney. Institute for Sustainable Futures.The goal of this thesis is to take people and practices as the primary focus in analysing past and emerging case studies of transitions in sanitation. ‘Transitions’, as structural changes in the way societal systems operate, are increasingly acknowledged as necessary for meeting sustainability goals. Uncertainties such as rapid population growth, the emergence of new pollutants, changing hydrological conditions, climate change impacts, global economic instability and declining phosphorus reserves are driving innovation and transitions in sanitation. Integral to the process of transitioning toward sustainability are ‘people and practices’ and yet the tendency of innovation scholars is to focus on technological factors and systems of supply. This ignores the importance of the human dimensions of technological change. In light of this knowledge gap, the objective of this thesis is to investigate how ‘people and practices’ are involved in technological change and in the emergence of sustainable systems of sanitation. Practices in this thesis are discussed at the level of using novel technologies (implicating end-users) and the level of planning, designing and managing the installation of novel technologies (implicating project teams). Complementary to the overarching framework of transition management, this transdisciplinary perspective of ‘practices’ draws on literature from practice theory, social and organisational learning and communities of practice. Six case studies of transitions in sanitation, over three cycles of research, provide insight into how transitions have historically occurred, are occurring at present and might be more readily facilitated in the future. The diverse range of cases span temporal (historical and real-time cases), geographic (local and international cases) and spatial (community and city scale cases) scales with a primary focus on the emergence of urine diversion (UD) in Sweden and Australia. The sociological perspective adopted to study transitions in sanitation revealed the complex relationship between sanitation technologies, and the users/consumers and managers/providers of these systems. Contributions to new knowledge resulting from this research span praxis and methodology. This has included identification of principles for designing experiments to support social learning in transdisciplinary projects inclusive of end-users, processes for engaging end-users in adopting new practices through social learning, and methods for translating individual learning into organisational learning and change by organisations trialling sustainable innovation. Methodological contributions include the identification and application of a cumulative staged approach to case study research on transitions and demonstration of the value and validity of qualitative social research in facilitating and supporting the emergence of new and fragile practices

Convergence of the waste and water sectors: risks, opportunities and future trends – discussion paper

The aim of this discussion paper is to bring to light the increasing convergence of the water and waste sectors and the associated risks, benefits, and future trends already on the horizon. Current examples of convergence in managing coal seam gas (CSG), food waste, fats, oils and grease (FOG) and biosolids, provide insights into not only the risks to public and environmental health of waste streams that cross sectoral boundaries but also potential opportunities for the water and waste sectors to seize as business opportunities. What is clear is that convergence between these sectors is already happening and in some cases there are adverse environmental consequences and associated health impacts. A key message from this research is the need to take an integrated and coordinated approach to planning and regulating the convergence of the water and waste sectors. Key recommendations to manage the risks associated with cross sector convergence of the water and waste sectors include facilitating: (1) increased engagement between regulators of each sector, (2) greater communication across sectors (3) a co-ordinated approach and plan to managing waste streams, (4) the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks that cross sectors and (5) a coordinated approach to the assessment of research needs

Evaluation of Intereye Corneal Asymmetry in Patients with Keratoconus. A Scheimpflug Imaging Study

Purpose: To assess the correlation between keratoconus severity and intereye asymmetry of pachymetric data and posterior elevation values and to evaluate their combined accuracy in discriminating normal corneas from those with keratoconus. Methods: This study included 97 patients: 65 subjects with bilateral normal corneas (NC) and 32 with keratoconus (KC). Central corneal thickness (CCT), thinnest corneal thickness (ThCT) and posterior elevation (PE) at the thinnest point of the cornea were measured in both eyes using Scheimpflug imaging. Intereye asymmetry and its correlation with keratoconus severity were calculated for each variable. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was used to compare predictive accuracy of different variables for keratoconus. Results: In normal eyes, intereye differences were significantly lower compared with the keratoconus eyes (p<0.001, for CCT, ThCT and PE). There was a significant exponential correlation between disease severity and intereye asymmetry of steep keratometry (r(2) = 0.55, p<0.001), CCT (r(2) = 0.39, p<0.001), ThCT (r(2) = 0.48, p<0.001) and PE (r(2) = 0.64, p<0.001). After adjustment for keratoconus severity, asymmetry in thinnest pachymetry proved to be the best parameter to characterize intereye corneal asymmetry in keratoconus. This variable had high accuracy and significantly better discriminating ability (AUROC: 0.99) for KC than posterior elevation (AUROC: 0.96), ThCT (AUROC: 0.94) or CCT (AUROC: 0.92) alone. Conclusions: There is an increased intereye asymmetry in keratometry, pachymetry and posterior corneal elevation values in keratoconic patients compared to subjects with normal corneas. Keratoconus patients with more severe disease are also more asymmetric in their disease status which should be taken into account during clinical care

Glucosamine increases hyaluronic acid production in human osteoarthritic synovium explants

Background. Glucosamine (GlcN) used by patients with osteoarthritis was demonstrated to reduce pain, but the working mechanism is still not clear. Viscosupplementation with hyaluronic acid (HA) is also described to reduce pain in osteoarthritis. The synthesis of HA requires GlcN as one of its main building blocks. We therefore hypothesized that addition of GlcN might increase HA production by synovium tissue. Methods. Human osteoarthritic synovium explants were obtained at total knee surgery and pre-cultured for 1 day. The experimental conditions consisted of a 2 days continuation of the culture with addition of N-Acetyl-glucosamine (GlcN-Ac; 5 mM), glucosamine-hydrochloride (GlcN-HCl; 0.5 and 5 mM), glucose (Gluc; 0.5 and 5 mM). Hereafter HA production was measured in culture medium supernatant using an enzyme-linked binding protein assay. Real time RT-PCR was performed for hyaluronic acid synthase (HAS) 1, 2 and 3 on RNA isolated from the explants. Results. 0.5 mM

Analysis of Medaka sox9 Orthologue Reveals a Conserved Role in Germ Cell Maintenance

The sex determining gene is divergent among different animal species. However, sox9 is up-regulated in the male gonads in a number of species in which it is the essential regulator of testis determination. It is therefore often discussed that the sex determining gene-sox9 axis functions in several vertebrates. In our current study, we show that sox9b in the medaka (Oryzias latipes) is one of the orthologues of mammalian Sox9 at syntenic and expression levels. Medaka sox9b affects the organization of extracellular matrices, which represents a conserved role of sox9, but does not directly regulate testis determination. We made this determination via gene expression and phenotype analyses of medaka with different copy numbers of sox9b. Sox9b is involved in promoting cellular associations and is indispensible for the proper proliferation and survival of germ cells in both female and male medaka gonads. Medaka mutants that lack sox9b function exhibit a seemingly paradoxical phenotype of sex reversal to male. This is explained by a reduction in the germ cell number associated with aberrant extracellular matrices. Together with its identified roles in other vertebrate gonads, a testis-determining role for Sox9 in mammals is likely to have been neofunctionalized and appended to its conserved role in germ cell maintenance

Identification of De Novo Copy Number Variants Associated with Human Disorders of Sexual Development

Disorders of sexual development (DSD), ranging in severity from genital abnormalities to complete sex reversal, are among the most common human birth defects with incidence rates reaching almost 3%. Although causative alterations in key genes controlling gonad development have been identified, the majority of DSD cases remain unexplained. To improve the diagnosis, we screened 116 children born with idiopathic DSD using a clinically validated array-based comparative genomic hybridization platform. 8951 controls without urogenital defects were used to compare with our cohort of affected patients. Clinically relevant imbalances were found in 21.5% of the analyzed patients. Most anomalies (74.2%) evaded detection by the routinely ordered karyotype and were scattered across the genome in gene-enriched subtelomeric loci. Among these defects, confirmed de novo duplication and deletion events were noted on 1p36.33, 9p24.3 and 19q12-q13.11 for ambiguous genitalia, 10p14 and Xq28 for cryptorchidism and 12p13 and 16p11.2 for hypospadias. These variants were significantly associated with genitourinary defects (P = 6.08×10−12). The causality of defects observed in 5p15.3, 9p24.3, 22q12.1 and Xq28 was supported by the presence of overlapping chromosomal rearrangements in several unrelated patients. In addition to known gonad determining genes including SRY and DMRT1, novel candidate genes such as FGFR2, KANK1, ADCY2 and ZEB2 were encompassed. The identification of risk germline rearrangements for urogenital birth defects may impact diagnosis and genetic counseling and contribute to the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of human sexual development

Development of pig welfare assessment protocol integrating animal-, environment-, and management-based measures

Abstract Background Due to increased interest in animal welfare, there is now a need for a comprehensive assessment protocol to be used in intensive pig farming systems. There are two current welfare assessment protocols for pigs: Welfare Quality&#174; Assessment Protocols (applicable in the Europe Union), that mostly focuses on animal-based measures, and the Swine Welfare Assurance Program (applicable in the United States), that mostly focuses on management- and environment-based measures. In certain cases, however, animal-based measures might not be adequate for properly assessing pig welfare status. Similarly, welfare assessment that relies only on environment- and management-based measures might not represent the actual welfare status of pigs. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to develop a new welfare protocol by integrating animal-, environment-, and management-based measures. The background for selection of certain welfare criteria and modification of the scoring systems from existing welfare assessment protocols are described. Methods The developed pig welfare assessment protocol consists of 17 criteria that are related to four main principles of welfare (good feeding, good housing, good health, and appropriate behavior). Good feeding, good housing, and good health were assessed using a 3-point scale: 0 (good welfare), 1 (moderate welfare), and 2 (poor welfare). In certain cases, only a 2-point scale was used: 0 (certain condition is present) or 2 (certain condition is absent). Appropriate behavior was assessed by scan sampling of positive and negative social behaviors based on qualitative behavior assessment and human-animal relationship tests. Results Modification of the body condition score into a 3-point scale revealed pigs with a moderate body condition (score 1). Moreover, additional criteria such as feed quality confirmed that farms had moderate (score 1) or poor feed quality (score 2), especially those farms located in a high relative humidity region. Conclusions The developed protocol can be utilized to assess welfare status in an intensive pig farming system. Although further improvements are still needed, this study is a first step in developing a pig welfare assessment protocol that combines animal-, environment-, and management-based measures

Prevalence and risk factors for internet gaming disorder

Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of internet gaming disorder (IGD) and associated risk factors in a sample of secondary and postsecondary students from a public federal institution of higher education (Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia) in Southern Brazil. Methods: The study included a sociodemographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Self-Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-BR), the Mini-Social Phobia Inventory (Mini-SPIN), and the Game Addiction Scale (GAS). Finally, IGD was measured with the Brazilian version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short-Form (IGDS9-SF), which has been psychometrically validated in this population. Results: Overall, 38.2% (n=212) of the sample exhibited IGD symptoms, with 18.2% (n=101) being classed as at-risk gamers. Regression analysis found IGD to be associated with male gender, severe depressive symptoms, poor sleep quality, increased time spent gaming, and total free time spent gaming (p < 0.001). Conclusions: The prevalence of IGD in this sample was relatively high, and associated risk factors found were similar to those previously reported in the literature. Further studies investigating the epidemiology of IGD in Brazilian samples are warranted to better understand treatment needs and inform preventive measures in this population