Integrating process and factor understanding of environmental innovation by water utilities

Innovations in technology and organisations are central to enabling the water sector to adapt to major environmental changes such as climate change, land degradation or drinking water pollution. While there are literatures on innovation as a process and on the factors that influence it, there is little research that integrates these. Development of such an integrated understanding of innovation is central to understanding how policy makers and organisations can stimulate and direct environmental innovation. In the research reported here a framework is developed that enables such an integrated analysis of innovation process and factors. From research interviews and the literature twenty factors were identified that affect the five stages of the environmental innovation process in English and Welsh water utilities. The environmental innovations investigated are measures taken by water utilities to reduce or prevent pollution in drinking water catchments rather than technical measures to treat water. These Source Control Interventions are similar to other environmental innovations, such as ecosystem and species conservation, in that they emphasise the mix of technology, management and engagement with multiple actors. Results show that in water utilities direct performance regulation and regulation that raises awareness of a ‘performance’ gap as a ‘problem’ can stimulate innovation, but only under particular organisational, natural physical and regulatory conditions. The integrated framework also suggests that while flexible or framework legislation (e.g. Water Framework Directive) does not stimulate innovation in itself, it has shaped the option spaces and characteristics of innovations selected towards source control instead of technical end-of-pipe solutions

Ripley Valley – an application of GIS based runoff modelling to strategic stormwater harvesting assessment

Stormwater management broadly has been well accepted as necessary for both flood avoidance and importantly also the prevention of aquatic ecosystem degradation within and around cities. Harvesting stormwater to provide diversification of water supplies offers a way of avoiding flooding and ecosystem degradation as well as acting to improve the climate resilience of cities. With Australia's population overwhelmingly urban in character, and the climate well known to oscillate between droughts and flooding rains, the opportunities represented by stormwater harvesting are significant, for both greenfield and brownfield developments

Apples and oranges? Assessing the relationship between health and vision related quality of life.

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78091/1/perron_abstract.pd

Inhibiting heat-shock protein 90 reverses sensory hypoalgesia in diabetic mice

Increasing the expression of Hsp70 (heat-shock protein 70) can inhibit sensory neuron degeneration after axotomy. Since the onset of DPN (diabetic peripheral neuropathy) is associated with the gradual decline of sensory neuron function, we evaluated whether increasing Hsp70 was sufficient to improve several indices of neuronal function. Hsp90 is the master regulator of the heat-shock response and its inhibition can up-regulate Hsp70. KU-32 (N-{7-[(2R,3R,4S,5R)-3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxy-6,6-dimethyl-tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yloxy]-8-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl}acetamide) was developed as a novel, novobiocin-based, C-terminal inhibitor of Hsp90 whose ability to increase Hsp70 expression is linked to the presence of an acetamide substitution of the prenylated benzamide moiety of novobiocin. KU-32 protected against glucose-induced death of embryonic DRG (dorsal root ganglia) neurons cultured for 3 days in vitro. Similarly, KU-32 significantly decreased neuregulin 1-induced degeneration of myelinated Schwann cell DRG neuron co-cultures prepared from WT (wild-type) mice. This protection was lost if the co-cultures were prepared from Hsp70.1 and Hsp70.3 KO (knockout) mice. KU-32 is readily bioavailable and was administered once a week for 6 weeks at a dose of 20 mg/kg to WT and Hsp70 KO mice that had been rendered diabetic with streptozotocin for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks of diabetes, both WT and Hsp70 KO mice developed deficits in NCV (nerve conduction velocity) and a sensory hypoalgesia. Although KU-32 did not improve glucose levels, HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) or insulin levels, it reversed the NCV and sensory deficits in WT but not Hsp70 KO mice. These studies provide the first evidence that targeting molecular chaperones reverses the sensory hypoalgesia associated with DPN.This work was supported by grants from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the National Institutes of Health [NS054847 and DK073594] (to R.T.D.) and [CA120458 and CA109265] (to B.S.J.B.)

Consensus Head Acceleration Measurement Practices (CHAMP): Origins, methods, transparency and disclosure

The use of head kinematic measurement devices has recently proliferated owing to technology advances that make such measurement more feasible. In parallel, demand to understand the biomechanics of head impacts and injury in sports and the military has increased as the burden of such loading on the brain has received focused attention. As a result, the field has matured to the point of needing methodological guidelines to improve the rigor and consistency of research and reduce the risk of scientific bias. To this end, a diverse group of scientists undertook a comprehensive effort to define current best practices in head kinematic measurement, culminating in a series of manuscripts outlining consensus methodologies and companion summary statements. Summary statements were discussed, revised, and voted upon at the Consensus Head Acceleration Measurement Practices (CHAMP) Conference in March 2022. This manuscript summarizes the motivation and methods of the consensus process and introduces recommended reporting checklists to be used to increase transparency and rigor of future experimental design and publication of work in this field. The checklists provide an accessible means for researchers to apply the best practices summarized in the companion manuscripts when reporting studies utilizing head kinematic measurement in sport and military settings

Inhibiting heat-shock protein 90 reverses sensory hypoalgesia in diabetic mice

Increasing the expression of Hsp70 (heat-shock protein 70) can inhibit sensory neuron degeneration after axotomy. Since the onset of DPN (diabetic peripheral neuropathy) is associated with the gradual decline of sensory neuron function, we evaluated whether increasing Hsp70 was sufficient to improve several indices of neuronal function. Hsp90 is the master regulator of the heat-shock response and its inhibition can up-regulate Hsp70. KU-32 (N-{7-[(2R,3R,4S,5R)-3,4-dihydroxy-5-methoxy-6,6-dimethyl-tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yloxy]-8-methyl-2-oxo-2H-chromen-3-yl}acetamide) was developed as a novel, novobiocin-based, C-terminal inhibitor of Hsp90 whose ability to increase Hsp70 expression is linked to the presence of an acetamide substitution of the prenylated benzamide moiety of novobiocin. KU-32 protected against glucose-induced death of embryonic DRG (dorsal root ganglia) neurons cultured for 3 days in vitro. Similarly, KU-32 significantly decreased neuregulin 1-induced degeneration of myelinated Schwann cell DRG neuron co-cultures prepared from WT (wild-type) mice. This protection was lost if the co-cultures were prepared from Hsp70.1 and Hsp70.3 KO (knockout) mice. KU-32 is readily bioavailable and was administered once a week for 6 weeks at a dose of 20 mg/kg to WT and Hsp70 KO mice that had been rendered diabetic with streptozotocin for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks of diabetes, both WT and Hsp70 KO mice developed deficits in NCV (nerve conduction velocity) and a sensory hypoalgesia. Although KU-32 did not improve glucose levels, HbA1c (glycated haemoglobin) or insulin levels, it reversed the NCV and sensory deficits in WT but not Hsp70 KO mice. These studies provide the first evidence that targeting molecular chaperones reverses the sensory hypoalgesia associated with DPN

Urbanisation and stormwater management in South East Queensland – Synthesis and recommendations

The ecological health of waterways is generally known to be impacted by the hydrologic and water quality changes which occur as a consequence of urbanisation. The aims of the research reported here were: to develop detailed characterisation of the hydrological, water quality and ecological impacts of urbanisation in SEQ across a range of catchments; to tease apart the likely causes of ecological impacts; and, having done so, to make a set of recommendations about how urbanisation might be managed differently to help avoid waterway ecological degradation. SEQ has a sub-tropical climate and the existing literature on the impacts of urbanisation has been developed mostly focussed on temperate climate conditions. This report provides a synthesis of the range of research results generated by the project and a set of management and research recommendations developed in critical response to the results. Twelve catchments in the Brisbane and Gold Coast areas of SEQ were gauged hydrologically for three years to yield a sufficient quantity and quality of flow and rainfall data to develop reliable catchment models using the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) platform. In addition, the total impervious area (TIA) for those catchments was determined from aerial photographs. SWMM models were successfully developed for eight of those catchments using a generic algorithm automatic parameterisation approach. At the same time as flow data was gathered, water quality data on pH, temperature, conductivity and turbidity was gathered for each catchment using Sonde instrumentation to allow the impacts of water quality change on ecological health to be assessed. These models were used to assess how hydrology changes with urbanisation intensity and pattern. First of all, a set of baseline simulations were run using long time-series hourly rainfall data for the catchments to investigate how increasing TIA impacts on catchment hydrology. Next, three predevelopment (no urbanisation) catchment models were used to simulate, using long time-series hourly rainfall, the impacts of increasing levels of urbanisation as characterised by per cent TIA (%TIA). From the modelling results, urbanisation is clearly associated with changes in hydrology, but the changes are complex. Whilst there are some generalities (increases in high flow condition duration, increases in mean flow and 90th percentile flow, increases in the frequency and rate of runoff event rise), the hydrological impact of urbanisation depends on catchment characteristics, including size, slope, time of concentration (ToC), sub-catchment sizes and distributions, and on the pattern of urbanisation itself across sub-catchments and the catchment as a whole. The same urbanisation pattern can exert a qualitatively different impact hydrologically, depending on the composition of the whole catchment in terms of sub-catchments. Maximum hourly flows appear not to be impacted by urbanisation, but 90th percentile hourly flows and mean hourly flows are impacted, both increasing with urbanisation. The number of runoff events increases with urbanisation and the size of the rise and fall in flow with each event also increases with urbanisation. The proportion of time spent under high flow conditions tends to increase with urbanisation for any given catchment, but not necessarily so – there can be some catchment specific decreases in high flow spell duration under urbanisation, depending on sub-catchment characteristics. The mean of high flow spells may increase, but not necessarily so. The proportion of time spent under low flow conditions tends to decrease with urbanisation, probably as a consequence of the streams studied being ephemeral in their pre-development state rather than strongly base flow supported and perennial. To understand how urbanisation affects the ecology of urban streams and waterways, a conceptual model was developed to articulate the range of potential mechanisms, and these mechanisms were then investigated through a mixture of means, by way of: statistically analysing the relationships between urban land use (particularly imperviousness) and Ecosystem Health Monitoring Program (EHMP) score and indicators; characterising macroinvertebrate assemblages present in three selected case study sites (one reference and two urban) and how these assemblages vary between summer and winter seasons or high and low flow conditions; and relating the assemblage data to hydrological and water quality variables in the sites concerned. The research reported here clearly indicates that there are negative aquatic ecological impacts associated with urbanisation in SEQ. In particular, the EHMP analysis demonstrates that urbanisation (as a lumped land use category) is associated with decreases in macroinvertebrate richness, and increase in the proportion of alien fish species observed. TIA, either lumped or weighted to mimic the effect of directly connected impervious area (DCIA), was not observed to exert a strong impact on any ecological variables. The ecological results tend to indicate that the hydrological changes following urbanisation are not significant degrading factors in themselves, rather, the water quality variables, particularly temperature range, are more likely to be important. The association of lumped urban land use with ecological impact and the simultaneous lack of ecological impact associated with IA (TIA or proxied DCIA) raise the question as to whether the process of urbanisation, i.e. the process of construction, is the primary source of ecologically degrading waterway impact in SEQ, rather than the on-going impact of impervious area runoff flows. Whilst urban and pre-development streams had similar levels of macroinvertebrate species richness and diversity, and similar distributions of habitat availability (riffle and pool proportions), there were significant differences over time (seasonally) within each stream type and between each stream type in relation to species composition. Pool species composition in both urban and pre-development streams was found to be stable over time, i.e. not affected by higher summer or lower winter flows. Conversely, riffle species composition in the urban stream was found to vary significantly over time, with lower diversity in the lower flow winter months, suggesting the importance of water quality changes rather than flow changes as a driver of assemblage change. As with hydrological impact, the mechanisms of ecological change from urbanisation are complicated and based partly on catchment specific features, e.g., the winter flow supporting upstream wetlands in Stable Swamp Creek and the ecologically locally devastating iron floc problems at Blunder Creek. Finally, the evaluation of the Qld frequent flow management objectives (FFMOs) as an ecologically oriented flow management policy instrument designed to avoid the ecological impacts associated with urbanisation, suggests that they will bring catchment hydrographs back towards their pre-development profile, but are insufficiently strong. The FFMOs will have an effect which is partly dependent on catchment characteristics, the distribution and sizes of sub-catchments and the spatial pattern of urbanisation