The Role of Climate Perceptions, Expectations, and Forecasts in Farmer Decision Making: The Argentine Pampas and South Florida: Final Report of an IRI Seed Grant Project

This project sought to extend previous research efforts with both a “front end” – mental models that influence climatic expectations and forecast applications – and a “back end” – the decision processes in response to climate expectations derived from farmers’ mental models and externally-provided information. Research in this report was motivated by three lines of social science inquiry: (a) the importance of subjective perception of risk, (b) differences in the impact of small-probability events when information about them is learned by personal experience over time as opposed to being provided as a statistical summary, and (c) the role of both material and nonmaterial (including cognitive and affective) goals and processes in risky decision making. This study provided multiple insights into determinants of use of climate information related to perception and communication, and some evidence that improved presentation may overcome some of the barriers and enhance utility. We see several avenues for extending results and addressing limitations of the project’s scope and study design

The Psychology of Climate Change Communication: A Guide for Scientists, Journalists, Educators, Political Aides, and the Interested Public

“The ultimate solutions to climate change are workable, cost-effective technologies which permit society to improve living standards while limiting and adapting to changes in the climate. Yet scientific, engineering, and organizational solutions are not enough. Societies must be motivated and empowered to adopt the needed changes. For that, the public must be able to interpret and respond to often bewildering scientific, technological, and economic information. Social psychologists are aware, through their painstaking scientific research, of the difficulties that individuals and groups have in processing and responding effectively to the information surrounding long-term and complex societal challenges. This guide powerfully details many of the biases and barriers to scientific communication and information processing. It offers a tool—in combination with rigorous science, innovative engineering, and effective policy design—to help our societies take the pivotal actions needed to respond with urgency and accuracy to one of the greatest challenges ever faced by humanity: global-scale, human-induced environmental threats, of which the most complex and far-reaching is climate change.

Improving epidemic malaria planning, preparedness and response in Southern Africa

Malaria is a major public health problem for countries in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). While the endemicity of malaria varies enormously across this region, many of the countries have districts that are prone to periodic epidemics, which can be regional in their extent, and to resurgent outbreaks that are much more localized. These epidemics are frequently triggered by climate anomalies and often follow periods of drought. Many parts of Southern Africa have suffered rainfall deficit over the past three years and countries expect to see increased levels of malaria when the rains return to more 'normal' levels. Problems with drug and insecticide resistance are documented widely and the region contains countries with the highest rates of HIV prevalence to be found anywhere in the world. Consequently, many communities are vulnerable to severe disease outcomes should epidemics occur. The SADC countries have adopted the Abuja targets for Roll Back Malaria in Africa, which include improved epidemic detection and response, i.e., that 60% of epidemics will be detected within two weeks of onset, and 60% of epidemics will be responded to within two weeks of detection. The SADC countries recognize that to achieve these targets they need improved information on where and when to look for epidemics. The WHO integrated framework for improved early warning and early detection of malaria epidemics has been recognized as a potentially useful tool for epidemic preparedness and response planning. Following evidence of successful adoption and implementation of this approach in Botswana, the SADC countries, the WHO Southern Africa Inter-Country Programme on Malaria Control, and the SADC Drought Monitoring Centre decided to organize a regional meeting where countries could gather to assess their current control status and community vulnerability, consider changes in epidemic risk, and develop a detailed plan of action for the forthcoming 2004–2005 season. The following is a report on the 1(st )Southern African Regional Epidemic Outlook Forum, which was held in Harare, Zimbabwe, 26(th)–29(th )September, 2004

Establishing a Foundation for Performance Measurement for Local Public Health Preparedness

The development of performance measures is not a new concept in the disaster preparedness space. For over a decade, goals have been developed and tied to federal preparedness grant programs. However, these measures have been heavily criticized for their inability to truly measure preparedness. There is also growing frustration at the local level that these performance measures do not account for local readiness priorities or the outcome-driven value of emergency response activities. To define an appropriate theoretical framework for the development of performance measures, a review of the literature on existing planning and preparedness frameworks was conducted, with an iterative feedback process with a local health agency. This paper presents elements of that literature review that were used most directly along with the conceptual framework that was used as a starting point for future iterations of a comprehensive performance measure development project

The American Preparedness Project: Where the US Public Stands in 2015

The American Preparedness Project was launched by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) in 2002, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in order to survey public perceptions and opinions on disaster preparedness and to acknowledge that a comprehensive understanding of the concerns of individuals and families is critical to emergency planning efforts on all levels. Characterizing such trends is critical because in order to develop effective disaster plans, as well as a sustainable long term disaster preparedness strategy, people need to be confident in (a) the reliability of information from official sources, (b) the capacity of government to perform effectively in a crisis and (c) the capability of response systems, particularly health systems and first responders.The major findings of the 2015 American Preparedness Project are presented in the Key Findings section of this report. The American Preparedness Project survey has been administered eight times since the launch of the project in 2002. Although the content of the questionnaire has changed over time to reflect the changing disaster landscape, a select set of questions has been asked in every iteration of the survey in order to capture changes over time.These questions are presented in the National Trends Since 9/11 section of this report and capture national confidence in household and community preparedness, response systems, and leadership. Following the overview of national trends over time, the report highlights findings from the current survey (see Key Findings in 2015) across the domains of General Preparedness, Natural Disasters and Climate Change,Terrorism, and Children in Disasters. The report concludes with Recommendations for improving national, community and household-level preparedness

Children in Disasters: Do Americans Feel Prepared? A National Survey

This study was led by the National Center for Disaster Preparedness (NCDP) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute on behalf of the Resilient Children/Resilient Communities (RCRC) Initiative, in partnership with Save the Children with funding from GSK.The purpose of the study was to learn more about people’s opinions and attitudes toward disaster preparedness with a focus on children in disasters.The national survey of American households was conducted in December 2015. Eligible participants were 18 years of age or older, and included participants, with or without children, in their household. Many of the families surveyed had children in a K-12 school or in daycare

Connecting on Climate: A Guide to Effective Climate Change Communication

Climate change is not a new issue, but the need for meaningful and sustainable solutions is more urgent than ever. Climate communicators and mainstream leaders are still grappling with how to help Americans find meaningful, actionable paths forward and overcome the social, political, psychological, and emotional barriers that have hindered progress on climate solutions. To connect with audiences and unlock success in climate change communication, communicators need to shift their approach. Communicators need to go beyond simply providing people with the facts about climate change. They need to connect with people’s values and worldviews and put solutions at the forefront to make climate change personally relevant to Americans and those they love. With this guide, we have brought together both researchers and practitioners to consolidate the best insights and evidence about how to communicate effectively about climate change. We have combined research from the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) at The Earth Institute, Columbia University; ecoAmerica; and other institutions with insights that ecoAmerica has gleaned from communicating about climate change and other environmental issues with mainstream Americans and their leaders. This guide presents information in a digestible, actionable form to enable communicators to “up their game” when engaging Americans on climate solutions of all types and scales

Monitoring of oxidative and metabolic stress during cardiac surgery by means of breath biomarkers: an observational study

Research articl

Deguelin Attenuates Reperfusion Injury and Improves Outcome after Orthotopic Lung Transplantation in the Rat

The main goal of adequate organ preservation is to avoid further cellular metabolism during the phase of ischemia. However, modern preservation solutions do rarely achieve this target. In donor organs hypoxia and ischemia induce a broad spectrum of pathologic molecular mechanisms favoring primary graft dysfunction (PGD) after transplantation. Increased hypoxia-induced transcriptional activity leads to increased vascular permeability which in turn is the soil of a reperfusion edema and the enhancement of a pro-inflammatory response in the graft after reperfusion. We hypothesize that inhibition of the respiration chain in mitochondria and thus inhibition of the hypoxia induced mechanisms might reduce reperfusion edema and consecutively improve survival in vivo. In this study we demonstrate that the rotenoid Deguelin reduces the expression of hypoxia induced target genes, and especially VEGF-A, dose-dependently in hypoxic human lung derived cells. Furthermore, Deguelin significantly suppresses the mRNA expression of the HIF target genes VEGF-A, the pro-inflammatory CXCR4 and ICAM-1 in ischemic lungs vs. control lungs. After lung transplantation, the VEGF-A induced reperfusion-edema is significantly lower in Deguelin-treated animals than in controls. Deguelin-treated rats exhibit a significantly increased survival-rate after transplantation. Additionally, a downregulation of the pro-inflammatory molecules ICAM-1 and CXCR4 and an increase in the recruitment of immunomodulatory monocytes (CD163+ and CD68+) to the transplanted organ involving the IL4 pathway was observed. Therefore, we conclude that ischemic periods preceding reperfusion are mainly responsible for the increased vascular permeability via upregulation of VEGF. Together with this, the resulting endothelial dysfunction also enhances inflammation and consequently lung dysfunction. Deguelin significantly decreases a VEGF-A induced reperfusion edema, induces the recruitment of immunomodulatory monocytes and thus improves organ function and survival after lung transplantation by interfering with hypoxia induced signaling

Neutral sphingomyelinase mediates the co-morbidity trias of alcohol abuse, major depression and bone defects

Mental disorders are highly comorbid and occur together with physical diseases, which are often considered to arise from separate pathogenic pathways. We observed in alcohol-dependent patients increased serum activity of neutral sphingomyelinase. A genetic association analysis in 456,693 volunteers found associations of haplotypes of SMPD3 coding for NSM-2 (NSM) with alcohol consumption, but also with affective state, and bone mineralisation. Functional analysis in mice showed that NSM controls alcohol consumption, affective behaviour, and their interaction by regulating hippocampal volume, cortical connectivity, and monoaminergic responses. Furthermore, NSM controlled bone–brain communication by enhancing osteocalcin signalling, which can independently supress alcohol consumption and reduce depressive behaviour. Altogether, we identified a single gene source for multiple pathways originating in the brain and bone, which interlink disorders of a mental–physical co-morbidity trias of alcohol abuse—depression/anxiety—bone disorder. Targeting NSM and osteocalcin signalling may, thus, provide a new systems approach in the treatment of a mental–physical co-morbidity trias