How the Australian Institute of Marine Science handled electronic journal suites

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The association between adult mortality risk and family history of longevity: the moderating effects of socioeconomic status

pre-printStudies consistently show that increasing levels of socioeconomic status (SES) and having a familial history of longevity reduce the risk of mortality. But do these two variables interact, such that individuals with lower levels of SES, for example, may experience an attenuated longevity penalty by virtue of having long-lived relatives? This article examines this interaction by analysing survival past age 40 based on data from the Utah Population Database on an extinct cohort of men born from the years 1840 to 1909. Cox proportional hazards regression and logistic regression are used to test for the main and interaction mortality effects of SES and familial excess longevity (FEL), a summary measure of an individual's history of longevity among his or her relatives. This research finds that the mortality hazard rate for men in the top 15th percentile of occupational status decreases more as FEL increases than it does among men in the bottom 15th percentile. In addition, the mortality hazard rate among farmers decreases more as FEL increases than it does for non-farmers. With a strong family history of longevity as a proxy for a genetic predisposition, this research suggests that a gene-environment interaction occurs whereby the benefits of familial excess longevity are more available to those who have occupations with more autonomy and greater economic resources and/or opportunities for physical activity

Jihadists Assemble: The Rise of Militant Islamism in Southeast Asia

Following the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States and the Bali bombings in Indonesia the following year, Southeast Asia came under scrutiny for its role in the rise of militant Islamism. Generally, scholarship on militant Islamism in Southeast Asia branched into two approaches: terrorism experts tended to see the problem through the prism of al- Qaeda, with Southeast Asian jihadists following orders from their leaders outside the region; Indonesia specialists, meanwhile, countered this al-Qaeda-centric approach by emphasising the local Indonesian factors driving Southeast Asian jihadism. In this thesis, by contrast, I focus on the regional scale. I find that Southeast Asia, for a time, emerged as one of the most important places in the world for the mobilization of global jihadist attacks against the West due to a historical and geographical process unique to the region. Drawing on the emerging field of assemblage theory, I argue that over time a regional jihadist assemblage formed in Southeast Asia—a cross-border constellation of networks, groups, and material elements—and that it was the mobilization opportunities presented by this assemblage that made Southeast Asia so attractive to global jihadists. Analysing a wealth of original interview and documentary material, I trace the gradual development of this regional assemblage over time and space, from its origins in the cycles of conflict between jihadists and the state in Indonesia in the late 1940s to the crucial role played by Southeast Asians in the attacks of 9/11

Disaster Resilience Versus Ecological Resilience and the Proposed Second Causeway to South Padre Island

The barrier island of South Padre is located off the coast of Texas’s southern tip in Cameron County and is a popular tourist destination with over 4 million annual visits. The only road access to and from the island is a four-lane causeway, 2.3 miles in length, that routinely experiences heavy traffic. Twenty years ago, a barge crashed into the Queen Isabella Causeway, destroying a portion of the bridge. It quickly became apparent how reliant South Padre Island (SPI) is on the causeway and raised questions regarding its lack of disaster resilience. Local boosters and government responded by proposing and planning for the construction of a second causeway that would provide an additional emergency response route and facilitate economic development. However, the planned location for the new bridge crosses through sensitive seagrass beds that this construction would permanently fragment. The habitats for numerous threatened and endangered species would be destroyed, thereby reducing the ecological resilience of the area. Social–ecological theory focuses on the interconnectedness between humans and ecosystems and their symbiotic nature. Yet in the case of SPI, these two dimensions of social–ecological resiliency are in competition with one another. The proposed causeway would ostensibly enhance disaster preparedness and foster economic development but at the expense of the degradation of crucial ecological habitats. This case study provides insight into the contradictions between ecological resilience and disaster resilience from the standpoint of various stakeholders

A directed mutation operator for real coded genetic algorithms

Copyright @ Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.Developing directed mutation methods has been an interesting research topic to improve the performance of genetic algorithms (GAs) for function optimization. This paper introduces a directed mutation (DM) operator for GAs to explore promising areas in the search space. In this DM method, the statistics information regarding the fitness and distribution of individuals over intervals of each dimension is calculated according to the current population and is used to guide the mutation of an individual toward the neighboring interval that has the best statistics result in each dimension. Experiments are carried out to compare the proposed DM technique with an existing directed variation on a set of benchmark test problems. The experimental results show that the proposed DM operator achieves a better performance than the directed variation on most test problems

Methodological Challenges in Studying Trust in Natural Resources Management

Trust has been identified as a central characteristic of successful natural resource management (NRM), particularly in the context of implementing participatory approaches to stakeholder engagement. Trust is, however, a multi-dimensional and multi-level concept that is known to evolve recursively through time, challenging efforts to empirically measure its impact on collaboration in different NRM settings. In this communication we identify some of the challenges associated with conceptualizing and operationalizing trust in NRM field research, and pay particular attention to the inter-relationships between the concepts of trust, perceived risk and control due to their multidimensional and interacting roles in inter-organizational collaboration. The challenge of studying trust begins with its conceptualization, which impacts the terminology being used, thereby affecting the subsequent operationalization of trust in survey and interview measures, and the interpretation of these measures by engaged stakeholders. Building from this understanding, we highlight some of the key methodological considerations, including how trust is being conceptualized and how the associated measures are being developed, deployed, and validated in order to facilitate cross-context and cross-level comparisons. Until these key methodological issues are overcome, the nuanced roles of trust in NRM will remain unclear

Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations during Independence Day Fireworks Display in the Lower Rio Grande Valley Region, South Texas, USA

Fireworks are typically discharged as a mark of celebration and joy in many societies spanning various cultures. In the United States of America, 4th July is celebrated as the Independence Day when the nation overthrew the British colonial yoke in 1776. While this day instills a sense of patriotism in every American’s heart, it is also a major PM2.5 air pollution concern. This study is first of its type in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Region of South Texas, USA, that characterizes fine particulate matter pollution. Using a low-cost sensor (TSI BlueSky Air Quality Monitor), real-time PM2.5 measurements were assessed at eleven different locations in four different towns and cities of Lower RGV Region: Brownsville, Edinburg, Weslaco, and Port Isabel. Hourly PM2.5 concentrations from July 03–06, 2021 are presented in this research work. Intraurban PM2.5 spatial and temporal variations provide an insight on the general population’s exposure burden during the festive period. Results indicate an increase in fine particulate matter pollution across the region, but the levels do not exceed the U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Findings from this study would possibly help in the formulation of effective firework policies to minimize the pollution impact

On inter-organizational trust, control and risk in transboundary fisheries governance

Inter-organizational collaboration is often considered essential to transboundary fishery governance, due, in part, to the high levels of task interdependence, the remote and often treacherous conditions, and the limited levels of information available to any policy actor on resource status. In the high seas, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are responsible for sustainably managing highly migratory and straddling fish stocks through the implementation of ecosystem-based approaches and ensuring adequate inter-jurisdictional cooperation. A central question facing RFMO governance is therefore how to structure and sustain inter-organizational transboundary collaboration under high uncertainty? This paper presents the case of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO), conceptualized as a strategic alliance between the bureaucratic organizations responsible for north Atlantic salmon fishery management in the member countries. We identify and explain how dimensions of trust, control, and perceived risk have structured the collaborative performance of the alliance. The application of an integrated trust-control-risk framework increases conceptual clarity for how, when and why alliance managers might seek to develop different forms of trust through different management control systems in ways that further multi-actor collaborative network performance. Future research needs are identified, including better understanding how managerial strategies and control mechanisms facilitate inter-organizational trust in transboundary governance settings and mitigate the perceived risks of working together