Improving NRM Investment through a policy performance lens

Choosing a mechanism to encourage landholders to change their land management in order to deliver environmental outcomes is a complicated process. Careful instrument selection may count for little if uptake and adoption are insufficient to meet performance targets. Similarly, investors may require assurance that the proposed investment will deliver the stated goals. In order to reduce the uptake uncertainty facing policy makers we evaluate and describe several possible methods to guide and frame adoption targets. We conclude that referring to past adoption experience of a wide range of mechanisms offers the best approach to setting feasible adoption targets for future mechanisms. We call this adoption points of reference. This approach is tested by application to mechanisms focusing on delivering water quality improvements in GBR catchments. We conclude that the points of reference approach is appropriate and useful but should be supported by processes designed to incorporate the impact of heterogeneity and local knowledge and an emphasis on improving the accuracy of future data.adoption targets, NRM investment, reasonable assurance, water quality,

Experiments and Simulations of short-pulse laser-pumped extreme ultraviolet lasers

Recent experimental work on the development of extreme ultraviolet lasers undertaken using as the pumping source the VULCAN laser at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is compared to detailed simulations. It is shown that short duration (similar topicosecond) pumping can produce X-ray laser pulses of a few picosecond duration and that measurement of the emission from the plasma can give an estimate of the duration of the gain coefficient. The Ehybrid fluid and atomic physics code developed at the University of York is used to simulate X-ray laser gain and plasma emission. Two postprocessors to the Ehybrid code are utilized: 1) to raytrace the X-ray laser beam amplification and refraction and 2) to calculate the radiation emission in the kiloelectronvolt photon energy range. The raytracing and spectral simulations are compared, respectively, to measured X-ray laser output and the output of two diagnostics recording transverse X-ray emission. The pumping laser energy absorbed in the plasma is examined by comparing the simulations to experimental results. It is shown that at high pumping irradiance (>10(15) Wcm(-2)), fast electrons are produced by parametric processes in the preformed long scale-length plasmas. These fast electrons do not pump the population inversion and so pumping efficiency is reduced at high irradiance

Ecosystem services based adaptation to climate change: why and how?

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits community receive from ecosystems. The necessity of ES for community well-being and sustainable development is universally accepted. ES have already been negatively impacted by climate change and will only deteriorate further during this century, if adequate adaptation measures are not taken. Noting ES are a relatively new dimension in the context of climate change, globally scientists and policy makers are busy searching for suitable adaptation options and ensuring an uninterrupted flow of ES. In this study, we have used climate change models, and synthesized the scholarly findings to answer two research questions (i) Why are ES based adaptations required? and (ii) What types of suitable adaptation options are available to ensure an uninterrupted supply (and flow) of ES? The study has been conducted in the Wet Tropics, Australia considering its outstanding national and global ecological significance. Our study has revealed that apart from the temporal and spatial variation, the magnitude of climate change impacts will be different for each ES. Therefore ES-based adaptations will ensure a sustainable supply and flow of ES, generating multiple ecological and community co-benefits. We have found a number of available adaptation options for different ES with substantial scientific evidence in the scholarly findings which can be implemented quite readily in the face of climate change. Some of these are: climate regulation- natural forests protection, agroforestry, planting higher wood density trees; water provision and regulation- upland forests protection, riparian restoration; coastal protection and erosion control- mangrove protection and landward facilitation, restoration of littoral forests, coastal plantation, green engineering; habitat provision-ecological connectivity, agroforestry; timber provision-planting tropical cyclone resistant trees. This study shall be useful for decision makers to incorporate suitable ES based adaptation options into their climate change related decisions, and for practitioners to select suitable adaptation options for interested ES

Where are the hot spots of ecosystem services?

Ecosystem services (ES) are the bridge between nature and society, and are essential elements of any community's wellbeing. Australia is a place of diverse climates with a narrow band of wet tropics in Far North Queensland. The Wet Tropics is environmentally diverse, iconic in biodiversity, and supplies numerous ES influencing community wellbeing of this region, Australian national economy, and global climate change mitigation efforts. However ES in the Wet Tropics have rarely been assessed. We dealt with two questions: i) how are ES spatially distributed across the Wet Tropics, ii) where are the hot spots of ES production. We have classified the Wet Tropics forests into four types: coastal eucalypt forests and wood lands, coastal rainforests, eucalypts hills and ranges, and wet highland rainforests. Vegetation data metrics have been collected from 70 plots of 0.05 ha each located from coast to more than 1000m above msl. We have spatially assessed the ES in these forest types. We have found spatial congruence and differences of ES production across the forest types. Different forests types have produced different ES in higher quantity. Our study has revealed that hot spots of ES production are widely distributed across the different forests types in the Wet Tropics. Disturbance regimes (cyclones, forest fire) and conservation priority in management options have also influenced the usual spatial trend of ES production. This study shall be useful for decision makers to incorporate ES into their natural resource management planning, and for practitioners to evaluate areas identified with ES significance

Allostery at opioid receptors: modulation with small molecule ligands

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144601/1/bph13823_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144601/2/bph13823.pd

Climate change impacts and adaptation pathways on key regional ecosystem services in the Wet Tropics NRM Cluster Region, Australia

Climate change alters the functions of ecosystems and as a result, the provision of ecosystem services and wellbeing of people that rely on these services. The concept of ecosystem services is aimed at supporting this broad and open dialogue in ways that allow potential synergies and tradeoffs among social, economic and ecological objectives to be identified and addressed with due reference to the multiple perceptions that people have about benefits and beneficiaries from the environment. In this paper we discuss insights about the impacts of climate change on key regional ecosystem services for the Wet Tropics. Syntheses of published ideas and approaches are presented with key climate change messages for NRM groups to enable them to incorporate into their new regional plans for the Wet Tropics Cluster Region

A review of X-ray laser development at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Recent experiments undertaken at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to produce X-ray lasing over the 5-30 nm wavelength range are reviewed. The efficiency of lasing is optimized when the main pumping pulse interacts with a preformed plasma. Experiments using double 75-ps pulses and picosecond pulses superimposed on 300-ps background pulses are described. The use of travelling wave pumping with the approximately picosecond pulse experiments is necessary as the gain duration becomes comparable to the time for the X-ray laser pulse to propagate along the target length. Results from a model taking account of laser saturation and deviations from the speed of light c of the travelling wave and X-ray laser group velocity are presented. We show that X-ray laser pulses as short as 2-3 ps can be produced with optical pumping pulses of approximate to1-ps

Netrins and Frazzled/DCC promote the migration and mesenchymal to epithelial transition of Drosophila midgut cells

Mesenchymal-epithelial transitions (METs) are important in both development and the growth of secondary tumours. Although the molecular basis for epithelial polarity is well studied, less is known about the cues that induce MET. Here we show that Netrins, well known as chemotropic guidance factors, provide a basal polarising cue during the Drosophila midgut MET. Both netrinA and netrinB are expressed in the visceral mesoderm, the substrate upon which midgut cells migrate, while their receptor frazzled (fra) is expressed in midgut cells. Netrins are required to polarise Fra to the basal surface, and Netrins and Fra undergo mutually-dependent endocytosis, with Fra subsequently trafficking to late endosomes. Mutations to fra and netrins affect both migration and MET but to different degrees. Loss of fra strongly delays migration, midgut cells fail to extend protrusions, and apico-basal polarisation of proteins and epithelium formation is inhibited. In netrin mutants, the migration phenotype is weaker and cells still extend protrusions. However, apico-basal polarisation of proteins, including Fra, and FActin is greatly disrupted and a monolayer fails to form. Delocalised accumulations of FActin are prevalent in netrin mutants but not fra mutants suggesting delocalised Fra may disrupt the MET. βPS localisation is also affected in netrin mutants in that a basal gradient is reduced while localisation to the midgut/VM interface is increased. Since a similar effect is seen when endocytosis is inhibited, Netrin and Fra may regulate Integrin turnover. The results suggest Netrin-dependent basal polarisation of Fra is critical for the formation of an epithelium.Melissa Pert, Miao Gan, Robert Saint and Michael J. Murra