The role of post-disaster institutions in recovery and resilience: a comparative study of three recent disasters – Victorian Bushfires (2009), Queensland Floods (2010-11), and Canterbury Earthquakes (2010-12)

This paper addresses the fourth area of disaster management: recovery and resilience. Disasters are focusing events that can drive immediate policy change. It argues that good recovery institutions provide the adaptive capacity that enables communities to recover from natural disasters. This paper briefly describes recovery processes after three natural disasters in Australia and New Zealand between 2009 and 2011: bushfires in Victoria in 2009, flooding in Queensland from 2010-2011 and earthquakes in the Canterbury region from 2010. These cases demonstrate the importance of flexible governance arrangements. This is shown through the choice of recovery institution, evidence of institutional learning before and after disasters, the role of community engagement, response to insurance issues, and the building of resilience. Particularly important for resilience is the building of relationships between recovery institutions and local governments and communities

Proopiomelanocortin Physiological Roles: Pituitary Versus Hypathalamic Functions

The fact that the proopiomelanocortin (POMC) gene is a critical component of energy homeostasis and the stress response, two distinct yet not exclusively separate biological functions, distinguishes this gene as very intriguing and unique for st lllldy. The POMC gene encodes a preprohormone that is post-translationally processed into multiple bioactive peptides. The tissue specific regulation and tissue specific post-translational modifications provide a means for the broad spectrum of the gene\u27s biological activities. Understanding the POMC gene\u27s cell-specific regulation and the physiological functions of its encoded peptides has been an ongoing project of multiple labs spanning the last two decades. Initial studies predominately revolved around the role of the POMC peptide adrenocorticotropin-stimulating hormone\u27s (ACTH) function as a key descending-component of the hypothalamicpituitary adrenal axis. Recently, the majority of studies have transitioned to a focus on the hypothalamic POMC peptide, a.-MSH, and its anorexigenic effects. This focus is with good reason. Within affluent societies, the rampant increase in obesity and overweight prevalence and the associated risk for several chronic diseases has accentuated the need for understanding the biological mechanisms of energy homeostasis. Using the murine rodent for its genetic advantages, this thesis attempts to further advance our understanding of the POMC system regarding its gene expression, neuron physiology, and biological functions. The fact that the proopiomelanocortin (POMC) gene is a critical component of energy homeostasis and the stress response, two distinct yet not exclusively separate biological functions, distinguishes this gene as very intriguing and unique for st lllldy. The POMC gene encodes a preprohormone that is post-translationally processed into multiple bioactive peptides. The tissue specific regulation and tissue specific post-translational modifications provide a means for the broad spectrum of the gene\u27s biological activities. Understanding the POMC gene\u27s cell-specific regulation and the physiological functions of its encoded peptides has been an ongoing project of multiple labs spanning the last two decades. Initial studies predominately revolved around the role of the POMC peptide adrenocorticotropin-stimulating hormone\u27s (ACTH) function as a key descending-component of the hypothalamicpituitary adrenal axis. Recently, the majority of studies have transitioned to a focus on the hypothalamic POMC peptide, a.-MSH, and its anorexigenic effects. This focus is with good reason. Within affluent societies, the rampant increase in obesity and overweight prevalence and the associated risk for several chronic diseases has accentuated the need for understanding the biological mechanisms of energy homeostasis. Using the murine rodent for its genetic advantages, this thesis attempts to further advance our understanding of the POMC system regarding its gene expression, neuron physiology, and biological functions. Whether the hypothalamic POMC peptides have functions that are exclusive to hypothalamic neurons or whether pituitary POMC cells provide a redundancy for these hypothalamic neurons was not known. Utilizing promoter-mapping data, we generated a transgene that would selectively rescue pituitary POMC while retaining the neuronal POMC deficiency when crossed onto a POMC null mutant that we obtained from the Hochgeschwender laboratory. Our studies revealed that replacing pituitary POMC (Pomc_1 _; Tg/+) was not sufficient to rescue the phenotypes caused by the ubiquitous absence of POMC peptides in the Pomc_,_ mice. In fact some of the phenotypes present in the Pomc_,_ mouse, such as obesity and diabetes, were accentuated in the mice lacking only CNS POMC. Obesity in the Pomc_,_ mice resulted from a decrease in their basal metabolic rate (BMR). Replacing pituitary POMC and thus glucocorticoids resulted in a further depression in the mouse\u27s BMR. Replacing pituitary POMC did not normalize the HPA axis but instead further suggested a regulation of the HP A axis, independent of glucocorticoids, by hypothalamic POMC neurons. The lack of CRH suppression in the presence of elevated circulating corticosterone in the Pomc-1 -; Tgl+ mice lead us to the previous conclusion. CRH is a known anorexigenic peptide and evidence supporting the opposing regulation of these neurons by POMC peptides, a-MSH and P-endorphin, makes this hypothalamic circuitry very intriguing for not only future stress axis studies but energy homeostasis studies as well

Rhetorical and narrative structures in John Hersey\u27s Hiroshima: How they breathe life into the tale of a doomed city

The purpose of this thesis will explore rhetorical and narrative devices author John Hersey used to create Hiroshima, one of the foremost non-fictional works of the twentieth century