Fostering Resilience and Adapting to Climate Change in the Canadian North— Implications for Infrastructure in the Proposed Canadian Northern Corridor

The Canadian Northern Corridor (CNC) has been proposed to overcome gaps in the northern transportation system that limit social and economic development in the Canadian North (Fellows et al. 2020). Intended to be a multimodal transportation right- of-way through Canada’s North, the CNC seeks to capitalize on shifting global markets and increased access to northern resources (Pearce et al. 2020; Fellows et al. 2020). However, transportation infrastructure has remained constrained across northern Canada. Significant challenges exist for northern infrastructure due to isolation, restricted access and extraordinary environmental conditions — all of which climate change is projected to radically intensify (Palko and Lemmen 2017; Pearce et al. 2020). Climate change drastically reduces the feasibility of expanding northern infrastructure. Significant increases in environmental risk threaten existing infrastructure and magnify maintenance costs. Adaptation in remote northern locations can be exceedingly difficult and costly (Palko and Lemmen 2017). Additional Arctic warming is guaranteed to have systemic effects and pose significant challenges for northern infrastructure: temperature and precipitation will continue to increase; permafrost thaw will be amplified through changes in seasonal snow cover and land ice; ice loss of mountain and polar glaciers is virtually certain; coastal impacts such as erosion and storm surges will be magnified by increasing sea level and extreme volatility; and Arctic sea ice extent will decline to the point of likely being practically ice free in September before 2050 (IPCC 2021). Determining how to facilitate long-term, effective climate change adaptation is critical to overcome these challenges. Adaptation planning seeks to anticipate and mitigate the risks that result from climate change. This is done through two methods: hard and soft adaptation. Hard adaptations provide a physical barrier to the source of risk, such as a sea wall. In contrast, soft adaptations reduce risk by adjusting human behaviour through a variety of methods, including regulating development out of high-risk areas through land use bylaws or development permits, and fostering environmental stewardship to bolster ecosystem services, such as wetland preservation to reduce flooding (Bonnett and Birchall 2020). However, common misunderstandings about which adaptation initiatives are effective often disable adaptation planning (Kehler and Birchall 2021). This often results in maladaptation — when adaptation measures result in unintended negative consequences that further increase risks. Hard infrastructure adaptations intended to reduce physical risk, despite typically being used as the foundation of adaptation planning, magnify the risk of maladaptation when used alone (Bonnett and Birchall 2020). Due to the capital-intensive nature of hard measures, both upfront and in long- term maintenance, and their predisposition to environmental degradation, the need to go beyond hard measures to address vulnerability is well understood (Bonnett and Birchall 2020; Kehler and Birchall 2021; Naylor et al. 2020). Adapting infrastructure to climate change in the Canadian North presents a formidable challenge. Limits and constraints to effective adaptation, such as lagging implementation, isolation, low population and limited tax base to fund local-level adaptation and infrastructure maintenance, result in significant challenges and limited capacity to overcome them (Bonnett and Birchall 2020; Birchall and Bonnett 2020; Birchall et al. 2021; Ford et al. 2015). While climate change is perceived to have the potential to increase access to the North — allowing trade, tourism and transport of much-needed goods and services to northern communities — in reality, existing and new construction will be progressively vulnerable to unprecedented climatic effects and the resulting infrastructure maintenance will grow increasingly costly. This increase in vulnerability and costs is likely to restrict the anticipated socioeconomic boons of expanded connectivity and resource development, potentially straining already vulnerable communities and Indigenous Peoples. Considerable uncertainty requires a planning approach to infrastructure adaptation that focuses on mitigating risks of climate change while also bolstering community resilience. Infrastructure expansion such as the CNC necessitates adaptation planning that includes fostering economic diversity and infrastructure resilience. Increased disaster risk due to climate change could push communities already overwhelmed by maintenance and adaptation to being unable to cope, resulting in vulnerabilities across northern Canada. Balancing hard adaptations with other forms of policy, such as soft adaptations intended to increase adaptive capacity and adaptation readiness, is critical to avoid maladaptation of infrastructure. Regardless of cost or feasibility, for infrastructure adaptation to be effective it must coincide with a reduction of socioeconomic stressors, and all decision making must be done through a localized, participatory and equitable process (IPCC 2014). Addressing adaptation and resilience for northern infrastructure requires exploring what is necessary to foster resilience, examining what avenues for adaptation are most effective and then maximizing the benefits of limited funding allocated toward these strategies. Effective adaptation strategies focus on the reduction of vulnerability through place- and context-specific approaches, using low-risk, high-benefit policy measures that are supported through significant intergovernmental co-operation, public engagement and integration of non-Western knowledge systems. By further understanding the pathways to achieve resilience, and through a holistic approach to adaptation, it is possible to balance the increased environmental risks of climate change with socioeconomic impacts, and to do so in a way that is economically sustainable long into the future

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

The influence of governance structure on local resilience: Enabling and constraining factors for climate change adaptation in practice

Across the globe, the need to adapt is urgent. Coastal communities are particularly vulnerable to climate stressors such as rising sea levels and erosion, while more extreme and variable weather events interact to accentuate risk. While local governments are increasingly recognized as a central local actor in climate adaptation, research continues to focus on resilience at municipal or national levels of government, limiting circumstances for analysis of differing governance structure. Regional government structure can vary drastically, offering a novel opportunity to explore the effects of governance structure on local capacity for resilience. Framed through a resilience lens, this comparative qualitative study analyzes adaptation within two distinct regional governments, finding that unique structural attributes of regional governments can enable or constrain climate adaptation planning. For instance, increased adaptive capacity, through greater access to critical resources, can facilitate action. In contrast, implementation can be constrained by regional agent priorities and a lack of adaptation consideration in granular planning tools. This study sheds light on how to better utilize strengths of regional governments, and how to integrate interventions within broader policy frameworks to overcome common adaptation barriers

Development and evaluation of topical gabapentin formulations

Topical delivery of gabapentin is desirable to treat peripheral neuropathic pain conditions whilst avoiding systemic side effects. To date, reports of topical gabapentin delivery in vitro have been variable and dependent on the skin model employed, primarily involving rodent and porcine models. In this study a variety of topical gabapentin formulations were investigated, including Carbopol® hydrogels containing various permeation enhancers, and a range of proprietary bases including a compounded Lipoderm® formulation; furthermore microneedle facilitated delivery was used as a positive control. Critically, permeation of gabapentin across a human epidermal membrane in vitro was assessed using Franz-type diffusion cells. Subsequently this data was contextualised within the wider scope of the literature. Although reports of topical gabapentin delivery have been shown to vary, largely dependent upon the skin model used, this study demonstrated that 6% (w/w) gabapentin 0.75% (w/w) Carbopol® hydrogels containing 5% (w/w) DMSO or 70% (w/w) ethanol and a compounded 10% (w/w) gabapentin Lipoderm® formulation were able to facilitate permeation of the molecule across human skin. Further pre-clinical and clinical studies are required to investigate the topical delivery performance and pharmacodynamic actions of prospective formulations

High-resolution survey for planetary companions to young stars in the Taurus molecular cloud

Direct imaging in the infrared at the diffraction limit of large telescopes is a unique probe of the properties of young planetary systems. We survey 55 single class I and class II stars in Taurus in the L’ filter using natural and laser guide star adaptive optics and the near-infrared camera (NIRC2) of the Keck II telescope, in order to search for planetary-mass companions. We use both reference star differential imaging and kernel phase techniques, achieving typical 5σ contrasts of ∼6 mag at separations of 0.2 arcsec and ∼8 mag beyond 0.5 arcsec. Although, we do not detect any new faint companions, we constrain the frequency of wide separation massive planets, such as HR 8799 analogues. We find that, assuming hot-start models and a planet distribution with power-law mass and semimajor axis indices of −0.5 and −1, respectively, less than 20 per cent of our target stars host planets with masses >2 MJ at separations >10 au.The observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. ALW would like to thank the Australian Government for their support through the Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship and the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University for the ANU Supplementary PhD Scholarship

Tiny grains shining bright in the gaps of Herbig Ae transitional discs

This work presents a study of two Herbig Ae transitional discs, Oph IRS 48 and HD 169142; which both have reported rings in their dust density distributions. We use Keck-II/NIRC2 adaptive optics imaging observations in the L′ filter (3.8 μm) to probe the regions of these discs inwards of ∼20au from the star. We introduce our method for investigating these transitional discs, which takes a forward modelling approach: making a model of the disc (using the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code RADMC3D), convolving it with point spread functions of calibrator stars, and comparing the convolved models with the observational data. The disc surface density parameters are explored with a Monte Carlo Markov Chain technique. Our analysis recovers emission from both of the discs interior to the well-known optically thick walls, modelled as a ring of emission at ∼15au in Oph IRS 48, and ∼7au for HD 169142, and identifies asymmetries in both discs. Given the brightness of the near-symmetric rings compared to the reported companion candidates, we suggest that the reported companion candidates can be interpreted as slightly asymmetric disc emission or illumination.EKB would like to thank the Australian Government for their support through the Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship and the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University for the Masters of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Advanced) Scholarship. MJI gratefully acknowledges funding provided by the Australian Research Council’s Future Fellowship (FT130100235). CF gratefully acknowledges funding provided by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects (grants DP150104329 and DP170100603) and Future Fellowship Scheme (grant FT180100495), as well as the Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme (UA-DAAD

The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Cubism and covariance, putting round pegs into square holes

We present a methodology for the regularization and combination of sparse sampled and irregularly gridded observations from fibre-optic multiobject integral field spectroscopy. The approach minimizes interpolation and retains image resolution on combining subpixel dithered data. We discuss the methodology in the context of the Sydney-AAO multiobject integral field spectrograph (SAMI) Galaxy Survey underway at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The SAMI instrument uses 13 fibre bundles to perform high-multiplex integral field spectroscopy across a 1° diameter field of view. The SAMI Galaxy Survey is targeting ~3000 galaxies drawn from the full range of galaxy environments. We demonstrate the subcritical sampling of the seeing and incomplete fill factor for the integral field bundles results in only a 10 per cent degradation in the final image resolution recovered. We also implement a new methodology for tracking covariance between elements of the resulting data cubes which retains 90 per cent of the covariance information while incurring only a modest increase in the survey data volume

Cell-intrinsic differences between human airway epithelial cells from children and adults

Summary The airway epithelium is a protective barrier that is maintained by the self-renewal and differentiation of basal stem cells. Increasing age is a principle risk factor for chronic lung diseases, but few studies have explored age-related molecular or functional changes in the airway epithelium. We retrieved epithelial biopsies from histologically normal tracheobronchial sites from pediatric and adult donors and compared their cellular composition and gene expression profile (in laser capture-microdissected whole epithelium, fluorescence-activated cell-sorted basal cells and basal cells in cell culture). Histologically, pediatric and adult tracheobronchial epithelium were similar in composition. We observed age-associated changes in RNA sequencing studies, including higher interferon-associated gene expression in pediatric epithelium. In cell culture, pediatric cells had higher colony-formation ability, sustained in vitro growth and out-competed adult cells in a direct competitive proliferation assay. Our results demonstrate cell-intrinsic differences between airway epithelial cells from children and adults in both homeostatic and proliferative states