What about me? Factors affecting individual adaptive coping capacity across different populations

 When and why will people adapt to climate change? We conducted a number of studies examining the psychological drivers of individual adaptation to climate change across different populations. We used a variety of methodologies including interviews, surveys, survey experiments and face-to-face experiments. There was a high level of rigour involved in each of these methodologies which means that we can believe in the results. This programme of research represents one of the largest and most integrated attempts to understand some of the psychological drivers of individual-level adaptation.First, we used the most recent advances in the psychological literature of coping more generally to develop a valid scale to measure coping with climate change. Across three studies we found that our tool was both reliable and valid, providing an accurate measure of the different ways in which people cope with climate change. This tool can now be used to understand the effects of both adaptive and maladaptive coping and to understand what leads to these different ways of coping.Next, we examined adaptive capacity. We found that adaptive coping strategies were associated with perceiving climate change as a threat to oneself and one’s way of life, rating environmental goals as important, and believing that adaptive behaviours could help achieve significant personal goals. Furthermore, when looking at societal adaptive capacity (support for governmental policies) we found that not only were a threat appraisal, climate change or environmental goal, and goal connectedness related to support, but also political affiliation, perceived human contribution to climate change, (lack of) denying that climate change exists, and a number of emotions (enthusiasm, worry, (lack of) happiness, and (lack of ) embarrassment). By knowing these factors that lead to adaptive coping and support for adaptive policies we can identify strategies to improve individual adaptive capacity.Third, based on a range of psychological literature, we hypothesised that adaptive behaviour would be related to goals, goal connectedness, adaptive coping, beliefs about climate change (including denial), and emotions that create an uneasy state of activation (enthusiasm and hope combined with worry). We found support for each of these relationships. Thus, we can again identify strategies to increase adaptive climate change behaviour. Across the studies, we found that adaptive capacity and adaptive behaviours relied upon both “green” beliefs and goals and “non-green” beliefs and goals. Moreover, believing that the adaptive behaviours helped a person to achieve their goals (whether they were related to climate change or not) was strongly related to adaptive capacity and behaviour. We have therefore shown that we can improve adaptation not only in those people who want to help the environment but also in those who are less interested.Unfortunately, the goal structure of environmental goals appears difficult to change. However, making people think about politics did have an effect: Regardless of their own political orientation, a person’s belief about the degree of human contribution to climate change decreased when they were thinking about politics (compared to not thinking about politics). This has implications for how climate change adaptation is discussed in the media and by researchers.The results of our research also have implications for the communication of climate change adaptation policies. Our results show that framing the costs of reducing CO2 emissions in terms of a decrease in future gain—rather than as an opportunity-cost—renders people more willing to commit to climate change initiatives.In summary, this programme of research has taken an integrated and rigorous step towards greater understanding of some of the psychological drivers of individual adaptation to climate change. Given the complexity of the problem, more research is needed, however we believe that our research provides a good early step in this direction.Please cite as: Unsworth, K, Russell, S, Lewandowsky, S, Lawrence, C, Fielding, K, Heath, J, Evans, A, Hurlstone, M, & McNeill, I 2013 What about me? Factors affecting individual adaptive coping capacity across different populations, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 161. AbstractWhen and why will people adapt to climate change? We conducted a number of studies examining the psychological drivers of individual adaptation to climate change across different populations. We used a variety of methodologies including interviews, surveys, survey experiments and face-to-face experiments. There was a high level of rigour involved in each of these methodologies which means that we can believe in the results. This programme of research represents one of the largest and most integrated attempts to understand some of the psychological drivers of individual-level adaptation.First, we used the most recent advances in the psychological literature of coping more generally to develop a valid scale to measure coping with climate change. Across three studies we found that our tool was both reliable and valid, providing an accurate measure of the different ways in which people cope with climate change. This tool can now be used to understand the effects of both adaptive and maladaptive coping and to understand what leads to these different ways of coping.Next, we examined adaptive capacity. We found that adaptive coping strategies were associated with perceiving climate change as a threat to oneself and one’s way of life, rating environmental goals as important, and believing that adaptive behaviours could help achieve significant personal goals. Furthermore, when looking at societal adaptive capacity (support for governmental policies) we found that not only were a threat appraisal, climate change or environmental goal, and goal connectedness related to support, but also political affiliation, perceived human contribution to climate change, (lack of) denying that climate change exists, and a number of emotions (enthusiasm, worry, (lack of) happiness, and (lack of ) embarrassment). By knowing these factors that lead to adaptive coping and support for adaptive policies we can identify strategies to improve individual adaptive capacity.Third, based on a range of psychological literature, we hypothesised that adaptive behaviour would be related to goals, goal connectedness, adaptive coping, beliefs about climate change (including denial), and emotions that create an uneasy state of activation (enthusiasm and hope combined with worry). We found support for each of these relationships. Thus, we can again identify strategies to increase adaptive climate change behaviour. Across the studies, we found that adaptive capacity and adaptive behaviours relied upon both “green” beliefs and goals and “non-green” beliefs and goals. Moreover, believing that the adaptive behaviours helped a person to achieve their goals (whether they were related to climate change or not) was strongly related to adaptive capacity and behaviour. We have therefore shown that we can improve adaptation not only in those people who want to help the environment but also in those who are less interested.Unfortunately, the goal structure of environmental goals appears difficult to change. However, making people think about politics did have an effect: Regardless of their own political orientation, a person’s belief about the degree of human contribution to climate change decreased when they were thinking about politics (compared to not thinking about politics). This has implications for how climate change adaptation is discussed in the media and by researchers.The results of our research also have implications for the communication of climate change adaptation policies. Our results show that framing the costs of reducing CO2 emissions in terms of a decrease in future gain—rather than as an opportunity-cost—renders people more willing to commit to climate change initiatives.In summary, this programme of research has taken an integrated and rigorous step towards greater understanding of some of the psychological drivers of individual adaptation to climate change. Given the complexity of the problem, more research is needed, however we believe that our research provides a good early step in this direction

Spatial and temporal patterns of locally-acquired dengue transmission in Northern Queensland, Australia, 1993-2012

Background: Dengue has been a major public health concern in Australia since it re-emerged in Queensland in 1992–1993. We explored spatio-temporal characteristics of locally-acquired dengue cases in northern tropical Queensland, Australia during the period 1993–2012.Methods: Locally-acquired notified cases of dengue were collected for northern tropical Queensland from 1993 to 2012. Descriptive spatial and temporal analyses were conducted using geographic information system tools and geostatistical techniques. Results: 2,398 locally-acquired dengue cases were recorded in northern tropical Queensland during the study period. The areas affected by the dengue cases exhibited spatial and temporal variation over the study period. Notified cases of dengue occurred more frequently in autumn. Mapping of dengue by statistical local areas (census units) reveals the presence of substantial spatio-temporal variation over time and place. Statistically significant differences in dengue incidence rates among males and females (with more cases in females) (χ2 = 15.17, d.f. = 1, p<0.01). Differences were observed among age groups, but these were not statistically significant. There was a significant positive spatial autocorrelation of dengue incidence for the four sub-periods, with the Moran's I statistic ranging from 0.011 to 0.463 (p<0.01). Semi-variogram analysis and smoothed maps created from interpolation techniques indicate that the pattern of spatial autocorrelation was not homogeneous across the northern Queensland.Conclusions: Tropical areas are potential high-risk areas for mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue. This study demonstrated that the locally-acquired dengue cases have exhibited a spatial and temporal variation over the past twenty years in northern tropical Queensland, Australia. Therefore, this study provides an impetus for further investigation of clusters and risk factors in these high-risk areas

Bringing Habits and Emotions into Food Waste Behaviour

This study examined consumer food waste behaviour using a comprehensive model integrating the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the theory of interpersonal behaviour, and the comprehensive model of environmental behaviour. Using a temporally lagged design, one hundred and seventy-two respondents answered four questionnaires over a period of 14 months. Questionnaires measured emotions in relation to food waste, habits, the TPB variables, intention to reduce food waste, and self-reported food waste behaviour. Results showed that the less well-studied variables of habits and emotions were important determinants of participants’ intentions to reduce food waste and their current food waste behaviour. As expected, we found that negative emotions were associated with greater intentions to reduce food waste, but contrary to our predictions they were also associated with higher levels of food waste behaviour. In other words, participants who experienced more negative emotion when thinking about food waste intended to reduce their waste but actually ended up wasting more food. Results also show that participants with a greater sense of control, and more normative support for reducing food waste also had stronger intentions to engage in the behaviour. Our findings extend existing understanding and underscore the importance of the non-cognitive determinants of behaviour, namely emotions and habits. The implications for research and practice are discussed

Epidemiology, prehospital care and outcomes of patients arriving by ambulance with dyspnoea: An observational study

Background: This study aimed to determine epidemiology and outcome for patients presenting to emergency departments (ED) with shortness of breath who were transported by ambulance. Methods: This was a planned sub-study of a prospective, interrupted time series cohort study conducted at three time points in 2014 and which included consecutive adult patients presenting to the ED with dyspnoea as a main symptom. For this sub-study, additional inclusion criteria were presentation to an ED in Australia or New Zealand and transport by ambulance. The primary outcomes of interest are the epidemiology and outcome of these patients. Analysis was by descriptive statistics and comparisons of proportions. Results: One thousand seven patients met inclusion criteria. Median age was 74 years (IQR 61-68) and 46.1 % were male. There was a high rate of co-morbidity and chronic medication use. The most common ED diagnoses were lower respiratory tract infection (including pneumonia, 22.7 %), cardiac failure (20.5%) and exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (19.7 %). ED disposition was hospital admission (including ICU) for 76.4 %, ICU admission for 5.6 % and death in ED in 0.9 %. Overall in-hospital mortality among admitted patients was 6.5 %. Discussion: Patients transported by ambulance with shortness of breath make up a significant proportion of ambulance caseload and have high comorbidity and high hospital admission rate. In this study, >60 % were accounted for by patients with heart failure, lower respiratory tract infection or COPD, but there were a wide range of diagnoses. This has implications for service planning, models of care and paramedic training. Conclusion: This study shows that patients transported to hospital by ambulance with shortness of breath are a complex and seriously ill group with a broad range of diagnoses. Understanding the characteristics of these patients, the range of diagnoses and their outcome can help inform training and planning of services

Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Barmah Forest Virus Disease in Queensland, Australia

Background Barmah Forest virus (BFV) disease is a common and wide-spread mosquito-borne disease in Australia. This study investigated the spatio-temporal patterns of BFV disease in Queensland, Australia using geographical information system (GIS) tools and geostatistical analysis. Methods/Principal Findings We calculated the incidence rates and standardised incidence rates of BFV disease. Moran's I statistic was used to assess the spatial autocorrelation of BFV incidences. Spatial dynamics of BFV disease was examined using semi-variogram analysis. Interpolation techniques were applied to visualise and display the spatial distribution of BFV disease in statistical local areas (SLAs) throughout Queensland. Mapping of BFV disease by SLAs reveals the presence of substantial spatio-temporal variation over time. Statistically significant differences in BFV incidence rates were identified among age groups (χ2 = 7587, df = 7327,p<0.01). There was a significant positive spatial autocorrelation of BFV incidence for all four periods, with the Moran's I statistic ranging from 0.1506 to 0.2901 (p<0.01). Semi-variogram analysis and smoothed maps created from interpolation techniques indicate that the pattern of spatial autocorrelation was not homogeneous across the state. Conclusions/Significance This is the first study to examine spatial and temporal variation in the incidence rates of BFV disease across Queensland using GIS and geostatistics. The BFV transmission varied with age and gender, which may be due to exposure rates or behavioural risk factors. There are differences in the spatio-temporal patterns of BFV disease which may be related to local socio-ecological and environmental factors. These research findings may have implications in the BFV disease control and prevention programs in Queensland

The Effect of Carbon Credits on Savanna Land Management and Priorities for Biodiversity Conservation

Carbon finance offers the potential to change land management and conservation planning priorities. We develop a novel approach to planning for improved land management to conserve biodiversity while utilizing potential revenue from carbon biosequestration. We apply our approach in northern Australia's tropical savanna, a region of global significance for biodiversity and carbon storage, both of which are threatened by current fire and grazing regimes. Our approach aims to identify priority locations for protecting species and vegetation communities by retaining existing vegetation and managing fire and grazing regimes at a minimum cost. We explore the impact of accounting for potential carbon revenue (using a carbon price of US$14 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent) on priority areas for conservation and the impact of explicitly protecting carbon stocks in addition to biodiversity. Our results show that improved management can potentially raise approximately US$5 per hectare per year in carbon revenue and prevent the release of 1–2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over approximately 90 years. This revenue could be used to reduce the costs of improved land management by three quarters or double the number of biodiversity targets achieved and meet carbon storage targets for the same cost. These results are based on generalised cost and carbon data; more comprehensive applications will rely on fine scale, site-specific data and a supportive policy environment. Our research illustrates that the duel objective of conserving biodiversity and reducing the release of greenhouse gases offers important opportunities for cost-effective land management investments

Curation of complex, context-dependent immunological data

BACKGROUND: The Immune Epitope Database and Analysis Resource (IEDB) is dedicated to capturing, housing and analyzing complex immune epitope related data . DESCRIPTION: To identify and extract relevant data from the scientific literature in an efficient and accurate manner, novel processes were developed for manual and semi-automated annotation. CONCLUSION: Formalized curation strategies enable the processing of a large volume of context-dependent data, which are now available to the scientific community in an accessible and transparent format. The experiences described herein are applicable to other databases housing complex biological data and requiring a high level of curation expertise

An Insect Herbivore Microbiome with High Plant Biomass-Degrading Capacity

Herbivores can gain indirect access to recalcitrant carbon present in plant cell walls through symbiotic associations with lignocellulolytic microbes. A paradigmatic example is the leaf-cutter ant (Tribe: Attini), which uses fresh leaves to cultivate a fungus for food in specialized gardens. Using a combination of sugar composition analyses, metagenomics, and whole-genome sequencing, we reveal that the fungus garden microbiome of leaf-cutter ants is composed of a diverse community of bacteria with high plant biomass-degrading capacity. Comparison of this microbiome's predicted carbohydrate-degrading enzyme profile with other metagenomes shows closest similarity to the bovine rumen, indicating evolutionary convergence of plant biomass degrading potential between two important herbivorous animals. Genomic and physiological characterization of two dominant bacteria in the fungus garden microbiome provides evidence of their capacity to degrade cellulose. Given the recent interest in cellulosic biofuels, understanding how large-scale and rapid plant biomass degradation occurs in a highly evolved insect herbivore is of particular relevance for bioenergy

Mitochondrial physiology

As the knowledge base and importance of mitochondrial physiology to evolution, health and disease expands, the necessity for harmonizing the terminology concerning mitochondrial respiratory states and rates has become increasingly apparent. The chemiosmotic theory establishes the mechanism of energy transformation and coupling in oxidative phosphorylation. The unifying concept of the protonmotive force provides the framework for developing a consistent theoretical foundation of mitochondrial physiology and bioenergetics. We follow the latest SI guidelines and those of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) on terminology in physical chemistry, extended by considerations of open systems and thermodynamics of irreversible processes. The concept-driven constructive terminology incorporates the meaning of each quantity and aligns concepts and symbols with the nomenclature of classical bioenergetics. We endeavour to provide a balanced view of mitochondrial respiratory control and a critical discussion on reporting data of mitochondrial respiration in terms of metabolic flows and fluxes. Uniform standards for evaluation of respiratory states and rates will ultimately contribute to reproducibility between laboratories and thus support the development of data repositories of mitochondrial respiratory function in species, tissues, and cells. Clarity of concept and consistency of nomenclature facilitate effective transdisciplinary communication, education, and ultimately further discovery