Climate change adaptation in the boardroom

Abstract Climate adaptation is recognised by many of the world’s largest businesses as a global risk and one that requires critical attention. The World Economic Forum’s 2013 Global Risks Perception Survey, identified the ‘failure of climate change adaptation and rising greenhouse gas emissions as among those global risks considered to be the most likely to materialize within a decade’ (p.16). Yet despite action by many transnationals and international firms, it seems evident that most Australian companies appear to be struggling to move forward in responding to climate change impacts, apparently paralysed by short-term profit-first thinking, uncertain political risks and a corporate culture unused to volatility and disruption. Research approach This project set out to communicate adaptation to climate change to the “big end of town” and to gather soft data, acquire information and present issues back to the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF), the funder of this research. Our approach to the research challenge differed from a traditional technical, analytical or academic method. We used action-learning principles to engage a community in which we, as advisors to corporate Australia and as co-researchers, have social capital and standing. Through trusted information sharing networks, private closed-door meetings and one on one conversation with executives and senior management from over 100 companies we shared ideas, gathered, researched and refined information and tested our findings. Findings Our findings from the boardroom engagement include the following:   The Australian Government expects the private sector to adapt, yet little or no incentives exist to promote this behaviour. Autonomous adaptation as practiced may only benefit the lead actor while creating disbenefit for others (including other corporations, society and the environment). Market practices on current paradigms cannot be expected to meet greater societal adaptation needs. Further adaptation research is required in some areas to help guide shape and monitor adaptation for the private sector. A multiplicity of policy reform may be necessary, but crafting and implementing it is likely to remain beyond the capability of the Australian Public Service (APS) or individual Governments. Highly sophisticated mining, gas and some Asian owned technology companies are leading the way with many opportunities missed by Australian companies. Adaptation for the corporate sector is a key strategic issue, unlike mitigation and corporate social responsibility (CSR), as it benefits the corporate primarily. Insurance dependency may only be a short-term risk transfer mechanism as, in its current paradigm, it can mask risk, create a false sense of security and may impede adaptation.   Conclusion We hope that this report is of benefit to Australian organisations, policy makers, regulators and to researchers in adaptation science. This project shows that, on a whole, the Australian private sector is giving little consideration about the impacts climate change. This project has identified that considerable research gaps exist, but has also provided direction for organisations and researchers. Individual corporations and private sector peak bodies urgently need to explore the risks and opportunities that climate change and associated responses bring. This is especially so for the ICT, aviation, energy, insurance and finance sectors. Please cite this report as: Johnston, GS, Burton, DL, Baker-Jones, M, 2013 Climate Change Adaptation in the Boardroom National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast. pp. 81

Why do Students Still Bother Coming to Lectures, When Everything is Available Online?

Web-based lecture technologies (WBLTs), which deliver recorded lectures and notes online, are increasingly common. However, there is concern that they may reduce lecture attendance. Since we did not observe a significant drop in attendance following the introduction of WBLTs in the School of Molecular Bioscience at the University of Sydney, we surveyed 563 students to discover why they attended lectures despite the availability of copious online materials. 82 % of responding students reported they always or mostly attend lectures and 74% expressed a negative emotion when asked how they would feel if lectures were abolished. Free-form comments indicated that students attend lectures for reasons either positive about lectures or negative about WBLTs. Students feel that lectures provide a disciplined learning environment where they can concentrate in a scholarly community. Lectures intrinsically contribute to the ‘university experience’ and the social aspect is also important. Some students are motivated to attend through habit, guilt or by financial concerns. Negative comments highlighted perceptions that WBLTs do not fully capture lecture content, can be inefficient and unreliable, and predispose students to procrastination. The majority of students use WBLTs in addition to attending lectures and perceive distinct roles for each mode. Most students who did not attend lectures claimed they were unable to for logistical reasons, although some cited inconvenience, overcrowding or peer-distraction. Students also make strategic decisions to prioritise competing commitments. Only a minority of students prefer WBLTs to attendance. These students prefer the ability to work at a time, place and pace of their choosing. This study supports the contention that WBLTs alone do not reduce lecture attendance, and highlights features of lectures which can be improved to increase attendance and student engagement

Why do Students Still Bother to Come to Lectures When Everything is Online?

With the recent emergence of an extensive range of online resources: everything from electronic lecture notes, slides, mp3 podcasts to the fully-downloadable recorded lecture with coordinated audio and visual images, the obvious question is: “Why do students still bother to come to lectures?” To explore this question, a preliminary survey was carried out within junior, intermediate and senior courses taught by School of Molecular Bioscience, The University of Sydney during second semester, 2009. This simple voluntary survey, which was mounted on WebCT, had two simple questions, each of which allowed both constrained and open responses. Do you attend lectures? How would you feel if there were no face-to-face lectures and lectures were only available online? Of those students who responded to the survey, the overwhelming majority, surprisingly, attended most lectures. For a voluntary on-line survey which was only accessible over a two-week period, the response rate was very encouraging. Most respondents also submitted abundant, enthusiastic free-form comments. The students were keen to give their opinion; many of the comments contained more than one reason for their attendance pattern. Because of this, the results (both numerical data and comments) provide a rich resource of student opinion for analysis. This conference provides the ideal opportunity to reflect on our data with assistance from a wider audience

Analysis of brainstem activitywith fMRI during low-level of pain- a feasibility study with innocuous cold stimuli

Background: In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)studies, there are limitedpublished data on the functional map of the human brainstem. Objective: The primary goals of this pilot study were to assess the feasibility and  to map  the  neural activity in the human brainstem with fMRIby equal intensity by low-level of thermal stimuli on the peripheral sensors of the skin. Patients and Methods: FMRI studies of the brainstem were carried out on 6healthyindividuals in a 3T MRI machine. Noxious thermal stimuli was applied on the peripheral sensitisation nerves on the arm. FMRI data spanned from the brainstem location by a 32-head channel and analysed using a fixed-effects General Linear Model to discriminate signal intensity changes from physiological motion. The results were normalised and combined to show the activity at each location on a voxel-by-voxel basis. Areas of physiological activity were recognisedwith comparison to the  number of atlases. Results: Noxious and innocuous related activation clusters were approved in thisapplied method. There were considerable activity in the midbrain, pons, medulla and reticular formation. The results  of this pilot study are similar and in some anatomical regions even better with head coils than obtained with previous fMRI spinal coil studies.We obtained evidence of localization of the following nuclei by using this method, asfollows: major activities in the inferior anterior parts of pons and the junction with medulla includes the (olive and pyramids),superior cerebella pundicle, rostral portion of medulla (RMV), Broadmann areas  [5,2] touch and temperature sensation  areas with the innocuous stimuli; activation in the left side of the medulla the (olive and pyramids), the left side of pons, the left side of midbrain, Broadmann area [5,7] pain and temperature sensation areas with noxious stimuli. Conclusion:This pilotstudy provides useful evidenceoflow-painful and innocuous information transmitted  between the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system in healthy participants.It also demonstrates how peripheral sensitisation induces physiological changes in the brainstem  correlates with noxious and innocuous thermal transmission

Assessing relative resilience potential of coral reefs to inform management

International audienceEcological resilience assessments are an important part of resilience-based management (RBM) and can help prioritize and target management actions. Use of such assessments has been limited due to a lack of clear guidance on the assessment process. This study builds on the latest scientific advances in RBM to provide that guidance from a resilience assessment undertaken in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). We assessed spatial variation in ecological resilience potential at 78 forereef sites near the populated islands of the CNMI: Saipan, Tinian/Aguijan, and Rota. The assessments are based on measuring indicators of resilience processes and are combined with information on anthropogenic stress and larval connectivity. We find great spatial variation in relative resilience potential with many high resilience sites near Saipan (5 of 7) and low resilience sites near Rota (7 of 9). Criteria were developed to identify priority sites for six types of management actions (e.g., conservation, land-based sources of pollution reduction, and fishery management and enforcement) and 51 of the 78 sites met at least one of the sets of criteria. The connectivity simulations developed indicate that Tinian and Aguijan are each roughly 10 × the larvae source that Rota is and twice as frequent a destination. These results may explain the lower relative resilience potential of Rota reefs and indicates that actions in Saipan and Tinian/Aguijan will be important to maintaining supply of larvae. The process we describe for undertaking resilience assessments can be tailored for use in coral reef areas globally and applied to other ecosystems

Investigating the long-term impact of a childhood sun-exposure intervention, with a focus on eye health: protocol for the Kidskin-Young Adult Myopia Study

Introduction Excessive and insufficient sun exposure during childhood have been linked to serious diseases in later life; for example, insufficient sun exposure during childhood may increase the risk of developing myopia. The Kidskin-Young Adult Myopia Study (K-YAMS) is a follow-up of participants in the Kidskin Study, a non-randomised controlled trial that evaluated the effect of a 4-year educational intervention on sun-protection behaviours among primary school children in the late 1990s. Children who received the Kidskin intervention had lower levels of sun exposure compared with peers in the control group after 2 and 4 years of the intervention, but this was not maintained 2  years after the intervention had ceased. Thus, a follow-up of Kidskin Study participants provides a novel opportunity to investigate the associations between a childhood sun-exposure intervention and potentially related conditions in adulthood. Methods and analysis The K-YAMS contacts Kidskin Study participants and invites them to participate using a variety of methods, such as prior contact details, the Australian Electoral Roll and social media. Self-reported and objective measures of sun-exposure and sun-protection behaviours are collected as well as a number of eye measurements including cycloplegic autorefraction and ocular biometry. Data will be analysed to investigate a possible association between myopic refractive error and Kidskin intervention group or measured sun exposure.A pilot study of the K-YAMS was funded by a Perpetual Impact Philanthropy Grant (IPAP2015/0230). The K-YAMS study is funded by a competitive, peer-reviewed Project Grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council (1121979). GL receives financial support through an Australia Government Research Training Program Scholarship. SY is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council CJ Martin Early Career Fellowship. DC is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Research Fellowship GNT 1119339. RML is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Research Fellowship (#1107343) and a Cancer Australia grant

Production of H2 by water radiolysis in cement paste under electron irradiation: A joint experimental and theoretical study

International audienceLong-term confinement of nuclear waste is one of the main challenges faced by the nuclear industry. Fission products such as 90 Sr and 137 Cs, both β − emitters known to induce serious health hazards, represent the largest fraction of nuclear waste. Cement is a good candidate to store them, provided it can resist the effects of irradiation over time. Here, we have investigated the effects of β − decay on cement by performing electron irradiation experiments on different samples. We show that H 2 production in cement, the main effect of water radiolysis, depends strongly on composition and relative humidity. First-principles calculations indicate that the water-rich interlayer regions with Ca 2+ ions act as electron traps that promote the formation of H 2. They also show that holes localize in water-rich regions in low Ca content samples and are then able to participate in H 2 production. This work provides new understanding of radiolysis effects in cements

An octameric PqiC toroid stabilises the outer-membrane interaction of the PqiABC transport system

The E. coli Paraquat Inducible (Pqi) Pathway is a putative Gram-negative phospholipid transport system. The pathway comprises three components: an integral inner membrane protein (PqiA), a periplasmic spanning MCE family protein (PqiB) and an outer membrane lipoprotein (PqiC). Interactions between all complex components, including stoichiometry, remain uncharacterised; nevertheless, once assembled into their quaternary complex, the trio of Pqi proteins are anticipated to provide a continuous channel between the inner and outer membranes of diderms. Here, we present X-ray structures of both the native and a truncated, soluble construct of the PqiC lipoprotein, providing insight into its biological assembly, and utilise neutron reflectometry to characterise the nature of the PqiB-PqiC-membrane interaction. Finally, we employ phenotypic complementation assays to probe specific PqiC residues, which imply the interaction between PqiB and PqiC is less intimate than previously anticipated.</p