Empirically derived guidance for social scientists to influence environmental policy

Failure to stem trends of ecological disruption and associated loss of ecosystem services worldwide is partly due to the inadequate integration of the human dimension into environmental decision-making. Decision-makers need knowledge of the human dimension of resource systems and of the social consequences of decision-making if environmental management is to be effective and adaptive. Social scientists have a central role to play, but little guidance exists to help them influence decision-making processes. We distil 348 years of cumulative experience shared by 31 environmental experts across three continents into advice for social scientists seeking to increase their influence in the environmental policy arena. Results focus on the importance of process, engagement, empathy and acumen and reveal the importance of understanding and actively participating in policy processes through co-producing knowledge and building trust. The insights gained during this research might empower a science-driven cultural change in science-policy relations for the routine integration of the human dimension in environmental decision making; ultimately for an improved outlook for earth’s ecosystems and the billions of people that depend on them

The Darwin Agreement: a collaboration between Australian restoration organisations in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration

The Darwin Agreement is a collective response from Australian national restoration organisations to the United Nation’s declaration of 2021–2030 as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. The agreement functions as terms of reference for a new alliance, the Restoration Decade Alliance, to optimise on-ground actions and advocacy to retain native ecosystems, reduce impacts upon them and restore them to the highest extent practicable. The Restoration Decade Alliance is expected to grow in membership and influence throughout the Decade and to help galvanise increased action and improved policy across the whole of Australian society including government, industry and community sectors. The UN Decade initiative seeks to reinforce efforts of all players, small and large, to help shift the currently destructive trajectory of humankind to a trajectory of recovery for the benefit of humans and nature

Protocol for a multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing arthroscopic hip surgery to physiotherapy-led care for femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) : the Australian FASHIoN trial

Background: Femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAI), a hip disorder affecting active young adults, is believed to be a leading cause of hip osteoarthritis (OA). Current management approaches for FAI include arthroscopic hip surgery and physiotherapy-led non-surgical care; however, there is a paucity of clinical trial evidence comparing these approaches. In particular, it is unknown whether these management approaches modify the future risk of developing hip OA. The primary objective of this randomised controlled trial is to determine if participants with FAI who undergo hip arthroscopy have greater improvements in hip cartilage health, as demonstrated by changes in delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cartilage (dGEMRIC) index between baseline and 12 months, compared to those who undergo physiotherapy-led non-surgical management. Methods: This is a pragmatic, multi-centre, two-arm superiority randomised controlled trial comparing hip arthroscopy to physiotherapy-led management for FAI. A total of 140 participants with FAI will be recruited from the clinics of participating orthopaedic surgeons, and randomly allocated to receive either surgery or physiotherapy-led non-surgical care. The surgical intervention involves arthroscopic FAI surgery from one of eight orthopaedic surgeons specialising in this field, located in three different Australian cities. The physiotherapy-led non-surgical management is an individualised physiotherapy program, named Personalised Hip Therapy (PHT), developed by a panel to represent the best non-operative care for FAI. It entails at least six individual physiotherapy sessions over 12 weeks, and up to ten sessions over six months, provided by experienced musculoskeletal physiotherapists trained to deliver the PHT program. The primary outcome measure is the change in dGEMRIC score of a ROI containing both acetabular and femoral head cartilages at the chondrolabral transitional zone of the mid-sagittal plane between baseline and 12 months. Secondary outcomes include patient-reported outcomes and several structural and biomechanical measures relevant to the pathogenesis of FAI and development of hip OA. Interventions will be compared by intention-to-treat analysis. Discussion: The findings will help determine whether hip arthroscopy or an individualised physiotherapy program is superior for the management of FAI, including for the prevention of hip OA. Trial registration: Australia New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry reference: ACTRN12615001177549. Trial registered 2/11/2015 (retrospectively registered)

Trunk, pelvis and lower limb walking biomechanics are similarly altered in those with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome regardless of cam morphology size

Background: Studies of walking in those with femoroacetabular impingement syndrome have found altered pelvis and hip biomechanics. But a whole body, time-contiuous, assessment of biomechanical parameters has not been reported. Additionally, larger cam morphology has been associated with more pain, faster progression to end-stage osteoarthritis and increased cartilage damage but differences in walking biomechanics between large compared to small cam morphologies have not been assessed. Research question: Are trunk, pelvis and lower limb biomechanics different between healthy pain-free controls and individuals with FAI syndrome and are those biomechanics different between those with larger, compared to smaller, cam morphologies? Methods: Twenty four pain-free controls were compared against 41 participants with FAI syndrome who were stratified into two groups according to their maximum alpha angle. Participants underwent three-dimensional motion capture during walking. Trunk, pelvis, and lower limb biomechanics were compared between groups using statistical parametric mapping corrected for walking speed and pain. Results: Compared to pain-free controls, participants with FAI syndrome walked with more trunk anterior tilt (mean difference 7.6°, p < 0.001) as well as less pelvic rise (3°, p < 0.001), hip abduction (-4.6°, p < 0.05) and external rotation (-6.5°, p < 0.05). They also had lower hip flexion (-0.06Nm⋅kg, p < 0.05), abduction (-0.07Nm⋅kg, p < 0.05) and ankle plantarflexion moments (-0.19Nm⋅kg, p < 0.001). These biomechanical differences occurred throughout the gait cycle. There were no differences in walking biomechanics according to cam morphology size. Significance: Results do not support the hypothesis that larger cam morphology is associated with larger differences in walking biomechanics but did demonstrate general differences in trunk, pelvis and lower limb biomechanics between those with FAI sydrome and pain-free controls. Altered external biomechanics are likely the result of complex sensory-motor strategy resulting from pain inhibition or impingement avoidance. Future studies should examine internal loading in those with FAI sydnrome

Food security framings within the UK and the integration of local food systems

This paper provides a critical interpretation of food security politics in the UK. It applies the notion of food security collective action frames to assess how specific action frames are maintained and contested. The interdependency between scale and framing in food security discourse is also scrutinised. It does this through an examination of " official" UK food security approaches and the place of local food systems within these debates. The paper shows how the UK government's approach to food production and food security has been underpinned by the notion of resilience, which it considers is best achieved through sustainable intensification, market liberalisation and risk management, with local food systems largely sidelined within these " official" framings. Nevertheless, collective action frames are socio-political constructs which are open to contestation; they are not static entities and are part of a mobile multi-organizational political field. The notion of incompleteness and fragility is highly pertinent to an examination of debates about the contribution that local food systems can make to food security within the UK, suggesting that the " official" interpretation of food security can be challenged to be more inclusive and to accommodate social justice imperatives. Adopting this more holistic perspective broadens UK definitions of food security beyond the quantity of food available to encompass the needs of communities, households and individuals, offering a more transformative and progressive role for local food systems, notwithstanding the significance of asymmetrical power relations. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd

Toward a taxonomic model of attention in effortful listening

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in studying listening effort. Research on listening effort intersects with the development of active theories of speech perception and contributes to the broader endeavor of understanding speech perception within the context of neuroscientific theories of perception, attention, and effort. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the problem, researchers vary widely in their precise conceptualization of the catch-all term listening effort. Very recent consensus work stresses the relationship between listening effort and the allocation of cognitive resources, providing a conceptual link to current cognitive neuropsychological theories associating effort with the allocation of selective attention. By linking listening effort to attentional effort, we enable the application of a taxonomy of external and internal attention to the characterization of effortful listening. More specifically, we use a vectorial model to decompose the demand causing listening effort into its mutually orthogonal external and internal components and map the relationship between demanded and exerted effort by means of a resource-limiting term that can represent the influence of motivation as well as vigilance and arousal. Due to its quantitative nature and easy graphical interpretation, this model can be applied to a broad range of problems dealing with listening effort. As such, we conclude that the model provides a good starting point for further research on effortful listening within a more differentiated neuropsychological framework