41 research outputs found

    Climate change adaptation strategies to support Australia's estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems

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    Scientists from James Cook University, CSIRO and Griffith University collaborated to develop a process for planning Climate Change Adaptation actions to support the resilience and productivity of Australia's estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems into the future. This 3 year project involved extensive review of Climate Change Adaptation strategies from across the world and evaluated their usefulness under Australian conditions through reviewing case studies, through interviews with workers from all levels of science and management from across Australia, and by reviewing modelling tools and using advanced qualitative modelling. The project was developed in response to the threats to the fisheries values, biodiversity and ecosystem functions posed by Climate Change on Australia’s estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems that are already heavily impacted by changes in land and water use. This was undertaken in the recognition that large-scale strategy thinking was necessary for a country with a great diversity of estuary and coastal marine ecosystems, plant and animal assemblages, climates, and region-specific threats and matters of contention. The project developed a set of general principles to help direct estuarine and coastal adaptation strategies whatever the particular situation – to help guide, but not constrain, the development of informed adaptation policies, plans and actions

    Climate change adaptation strategies to support Australia's estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems

    Get PDF
    Scientists from James Cook University, CSIRO and Griffith University collaborated to develop a process for planning Climate Change Adaptation actions to support the resilience and productivity of Australia's estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems into the future. This 3 year project involved extensive review of Climate Change Adaptation strategies from across the world and evaluated their usefulness under Australian conditions through reviewing case studies, through interviews with workers from all levels of science and management from across Australia, and by reviewing modelling tools and using advanced qualitative modelling. The project was developed in response to the threats to the fisheries values, biodiversity and ecosystem functions posed by Climate Change on Australia’s estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems that are already heavily impacted by changes in land and water use. This was undertaken in the recognition that large-scale strategy thinking was necessary for a country with a great diversity of estuary and coastal marine ecosystems, plant and animal assemblages, climates, and region-specific threats and matters of contention. The project developed a set of general principles to help direct estuarine and coastal adaptation strategies whatever the particular situation – to help guide, but not constrain, the development of informed adaptation policies, plans and actions

    A bloodâ based nutritional risk index explains cognitive enhancement and decline in the multidomain Alzheimer prevention trial

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    IntroductionMultinutrient approaches may produce more robust effects on brain health through interactive qualities. We hypothesized that a bloodâ based nutritional risk index (NRI) including three biomarkers of diet quality can explain cognitive trajectories in the multidomain Alzheimer prevention trial (MAPT) over 3â years.MethodsThe NRI included erythrocyte nâ 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (nâ 3 PUFA 22:6nâ 3 and 20:5nâ 3), serum 25â hydroxyvitamin D, and plasma homocysteine. The NRI scores reflect the number of nutritional risk factors (0â 3). The primary outcome in MAPT was a cognitive composite Z score within each participant that was fit with linear mixedâ effects models.ResultsEighty percent had at lease one nutritional risk factor for cognitive decline (NRI â ¥1: 573 of 712). Participants presenting without nutritional risk factors (NRI=0) exhibited cognitive enhancement (β = 0.03 standard units [SU]/y), whereas each NRI point increase corresponded to an incremental acceleration in rates of cognitive decline (NRIâ 1: β = â 0.04 SU/y, P = .03; NRIâ 2: β = â 0.08 SU/y, P < .0001; and NRIâ 3: β = â 0.11 SU/y, P = .0008).DiscussionIdentifying and addressing these wellâ established nutritional risk factors may reduce ageâ related cognitive decline in older adults; an observation that warrants further study.Highlightsâ ¢Multiâ nutrient approaches may produce more robust effects through interactive propertiesâ ¢Nutritional risk index can objectively quantify nutritionâ related cognitive changesâ ¢Optimum nutritional status associated with cognitive enhancement over 3â yearsâ ¢Suboptimum nutritional status associated with cognitive decline over 3â yearsâ ¢Optimizing this nutritional risk index may promote cognitive health in older adultsPeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152935/1/trc2jtrci201911004.pd

    HIV prevention transformed : the new prevention research agenda.

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    We have entered a new era in HIV prevention whereby priorities have expanded from biomedical discovery to include implementation, effectiveness, and the effect of combination prevention at the population level. However, gaps in knowledge and implementation challenges remain. In this Review we analyse trends in the rapidly changing landscape of HIV prevention, and chart a new path for HIV prevention research that focuses on the implementation of effective and efficient combination prevention strategies to turn the tide on the HIV pandemic

    Observation of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a 2.5−4.5 M⊙ compact object and a neutron star

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    Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

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    Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

    Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

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    Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M&gt;70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0&lt;e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

    Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

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    Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

    Bodies in Composition: Women, Music, and the Body in Nineteenth-Century European Literature

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    This thesis examines the relations between music and literature through fictional women musicians in nineteenth-century European literature and more particularly through their bodies. The female body appears to be a rich juncture between music and literature, facilitating musical references in literature as well as creating complex musical narrative systems anchored in social, cultural and scientific discourses of the long nineteenth century. All types of women musicians are examined (singers, instrumentalists, composers, and even listeners) along with different discourses on the body (social, philosophical and scientific), shedding a new light on gender and the arts. Our chronological as well as thematic approach strives to highlight a common representation of the body and of female musicians in literature. German Romantic texts thus present women musicians as elusive figures who play a key role in the impossibility to materialise the abstract. Realist and sensation novels are analysed through a clinical perspective on the body and envision female musicians as monomaniacs. On the contrary, fiction written by female authors introduces empowered musicians as priestess of art. Finally, fin-de-siècle novels stage the female body as a degenerate entity of society. The parallel analysis of literary case studies with different perspectives on the body posits the women-music-body triangle as a new approach to gender, music and literature
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