Pathways to climate adapted and healthy low income housing

AbstractThis report presents the findings from the “Pathways to Climate Adapted and Healthy Low Income Housing” project undertaken by the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship in partnership with two organisations responsible for providing social housing in Australia.The project was based on the premise that interactions between people, housing, and neighbourhood are dynamic and best viewed as a complex, dynamic social-ecological system. Using social housing as a case study, the objectives of the project were to:Model vulnerability of housing and tenants to selected climate change impacts;Identify/evaluate engineering, behavioural and institutional adaptation options;Scope co-benefits of climate adaptation for human health and well-being; andDevelop house typologies and climate analogues for national generalisations.This project was developed with the rationale that a multi-level focus on the cross-scale interactions between housing, residents, neighbourhood, and regional climate was vital for understanding the nature of climate change vulnerability and options for adaptation. The climate change hazards that were explored were increasing temperatures and more frequent and severe heatwaves in the context of heat-related health risks to housing occupants, and changes in radiation, humidity, and wind, in relation to material durability and service life of housing components and the implications for maintenance.Please cite as:Barnett G, Beaty RM, Chen D, McFallan S, Meyers J, Nguyen M, Ren Z, Spinks A, and Wang, X 2013 Pathways to climate adapted and healthy low income housing, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 110.This report presents the findings from the \u27Pathways to Climate Adapted and Healthy Low Income Housing\u27 project undertaken by the CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship in partnership with two organisations responsible for providing social housing in Australia.The project was based on the premise that interactions between people, housing, and neighbourhood are dynamic and best viewed as a complex, dynamic social-ecological system. Using social housing as a case study, the objectives of the project were to:Model vulnerability of housing and tenants to selected climate change impacts;Identify/evaluate engineering, behavioural and institutional adaptation options;Scope co-benefits of climate adaptation for human health and well-being; andDevelop house typologies and climate analogues for national generalisations.This project was developed with the rationale that a multi-level focus on the cross-scale interactions between housing, residents, neighbourhood, and regional climate was vital for understanding the nature of climate change vulnerability and options for adaptation. The climate change hazards that were explored were increasing temperatures and more frequent and severe heatwaves in the context of heat-related health risks to housing occupants, and changes in radiation, humidity, and wind, in relation to material durability and service life of housing components and the implications for maintenance

Ares I-X Range Safety Simulation and Analysis IV and V

NASA s Ares I-X vehicle launched on a suborbital test flight from the Eastern Range in Florida on October 28, 2009. NASA generated a Range Safety (RS) product data package to meet the RS trajectory data requirements defined in the Air Force Space Command Manual (AFSPCMAN) 91-710. Some products included were a nominal ascent trajectory, ascent flight envelopes, and malfunction turn data. These products are used by the Air Force s 45th Space Wing (45SW) to ensure public safety and to make flight termination decisions on launch day. Due to the criticality of the RS data, an independent validation and verification (IV&V) effort was undertaken to accompany the data generation analyses to ensure utmost data quality and correct adherence to requirements. As a result of the IV&V efforts, the RS product package was delivered with confidence that two independent organizations using separate simulation software generated data to meet the range requirements and yielded similar results. This document captures the Ares I-X RS product IV&V analysis, including the methodology used to verify inputs, simulation, and output data for certain RS products. Additionally a discussion of lessons learned is presented to capture advantages and disadvantages to the IV&V processes used

Multiple Loci Are Associated with White Blood Cell Phenotypes

White blood cell (WBC) count is a common clinical measure from complete blood count assays, and it varies widely among healthy individuals. Total WBC count and its constituent subtypes have been shown to be moderately heritable, with the heritability estimates varying across cell types. We studied 19,509 subjects from seven cohorts in a discovery analysis, and 11,823 subjects from ten cohorts for replication analyses, to determine genetic factors influencing variability within the normal hematological range for total WBC count and five WBC subtype measures. Cohort specific data was supplied by the CHARGE, HeamGen, and INGI consortia, as well as independent collaborative studies. We identified and replicated ten associations with total WBC count and five WBC subtypes at seven different genomic loci (total WBC count—6p21 in the HLA region, 17q21 near ORMDL3, and CSF3; neutrophil count—17q21; basophil count- 3p21 near RPN1 and C3orf27; lymphocyte count—6p21, 19p13 at EPS15L1; monocyte count—2q31 at ITGA4, 3q21, 8q24 an intergenic region, 9q31 near EDG2), including three previously reported associations and seven novel associations. To investigate functional relationships among variants contributing to variability in the six WBC traits, we utilized gene expression- and pathways-based analyses. We implemented gene-clustering algorithms to evaluate functional connectivity among implicated loci and showed functional relationships across cell types. Gene expression data from whole blood was utilized to show that significant biological consequences can be extracted from our genome-wide analyses, with effect estimates for significant loci from the meta-analyses being highly corellated with the proximal gene expression. In addition, collaborative efforts between the groups contributing to this study and related studies conducted by the COGENT and RIKEN groups allowed for the examination of effect homogeneity for genome-wide significant associations across populations of diverse ancestral backgrounds

Common Genetic Polymorphisms Influence Blood Biomarker Measurements in COPD

Implementing precision medicine for complex diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) will require extensive use of biomarkers and an in-depth understanding of how genetic, epigenetic, and environmental variations contribute to phenotypic diversity and disease progression. A meta-analysis from two large cohorts of current and former smokers with and without COPD [SPIROMICS (N = 750); COPDGene (N = 590)] was used to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with measurement of 88 blood proteins (protein quantitative trait loci; pQTLs). PQTLs consistently replicated between the two cohorts. Features of pQTLs were compared to previously reported expression QTLs (eQTLs). Inference of causal relations of pQTL genotypes, biomarker measurements, and four clinical COPD phenotypes (airflow obstruction, emphysema, exacerbation history, and chronic bronchitis) were explored using conditional independence tests. We identified 527 highly significant (p 10% of measured variation in 13 protein biomarkers, with a single SNP (rs7041; p = 10−392) explaining 71%-75% of the measured variation in vitamin D binding protein (gene = GC). Some of these pQTLs [e.g., pQTLs for VDBP, sRAGE (gene = AGER), surfactant protein D (gene = SFTPD), and TNFRSF10C] have been previously associated with COPD phenotypes. Most pQTLs were local (cis), but distant (trans) pQTL SNPs in the ABO blood group locus were the top pQTL SNPs for five proteins. The inclusion of pQTL SNPs improved the clinical predictive value for the established association of sRAGE and emphysema, and the explanation of variance (R2) for emphysema improved from 0.3 to 0.4 when the pQTL SNP was included in the model along with clinical covariates. Causal modeling provided insight into specific pQTL-disease relationships for airflow obstruction and emphysema. In conclusion, given the frequency of highly significant local pQTLs, the large amount of variance potentially explained by pQTL, and the differences observed between pQTLs and eQTLs SNPs, we recommend that protein biomarker-disease association studies take into account the potential effect of common local SNPs and that pQTLs be integrated along with eQTLs to uncover disease mechanisms. Large-scale blood biomarker studies would also benefit from close attention to the ABO blood group

The Influence of Manga on the Graphic Novel

This material has been published in The Cambridge History of the Graphic Novel edited by Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey, Stephen E. Tabachnick. This version is free to view and download for personal use only. Not for re-distribution, re-sale or use in derivative works. © Cambridge University PressProviding a range of cogent examples, this chapter describes the influences of the Manga genre of comics strip on the Graphic Novel genre, over the last 35 years, considering the functions of domestication, foreignisation and transmedia on readers, markets and forms

Climate Change and Health in the Urban Environment: Adaptation Opportunities in Australian Cities

Urban populations are growing rapidly throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Cities are vulnerable to the health impacts of climate change because of their concentration of people and infrastructure, the physical (geographical, material, and structural) attributes of the built environment, and the ecological interdependence with the urban ecosystem. Australia is one of the most highly urbanized countries in the region and its already variable climate is set to become hotter and drier with climate change. Climate change in Australia is expected to increase morbidity and mortality from thermal stress, bacterial gastroenteritis, vector-borne disease, air pollution, flooding, and bushfires. The cost and availability of fresh water, food, and energy will also likely be affected. The more vulnerable urban populations, including the elderly, socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, and those with underlying chronic disease, will be most affected. Adaptation strategies need to address this underlying burden of disease and inequity as well as implement broad structural changes to building codes and urban design, and infrastructure capacity. In doing so, cities provide opportunities to realize "co-benefits" for health (eg, from increased levels of physical activity and improved air quality). With evidence that climate change is underway, the need for cities to be a focus in the development of climate adaptation strategies is becoming more urgent

Urban policy and governance in a global environment: Complex systems, scale mismatches and public participation

The urbanization process and urban activities generate environmental impacts both within and beyond city boundaries. Urban policy plays an important role in shaping and changing the regional and global linkages of cities. Integrating regional and global environmental concerns into urban policy and management practices remains a challenging issue because of the inherent temporal, spatial and institutional scale mismatch between urban policies and regional and global environmental issues. This paper argues that firstly, urban policy has increasing relevance to regional and global environmental issues, and a systems approach is essential in urban policy making to maximize co-benefit and negotiate trade-offs and secondly, although the current institutional settings in urban policy making are not necessarily best suited for managing these issues, enhanced governance processes such as increased public participation and networking and learning across cities can be effective

Pocket parks in a compact city: how do birds respond to increasing residential density?

The desire to improve urban sustainability is motivating many city planners to adopt growth strategies that increase residential density, leading to substantial changes to urban landscapes. What effect this change will have on biodiversity remains unclea

Citizen science program shows urban areas have lower occurrence of frog species, but not accelerated declines

Understanding the influence of landscape change on animal populations is critical to inform biodiversity conservation efforts. A particularly important goal is to understand how urban density affects the persistence of animal populations through time, and how these impacts can be mediated by habitat provision; but data on this question are limited for some taxa. Here, we use data from a citizen science monitoring program to investigate the effect of urbanization on patterns of frog species richness and occurrence over 13 years. Sites surrounded by a high proportion of bare ground (a proxy for urbanization) had consistently lower frog occurrence, but we found no evidence that declines were restricted to urban areas. Instead, several frog species showed declines in rural wetlands with low-quality habitat. Our analysis shows that urban wetlands had low but stable species richness; but also that population trajectories are strongly influenced by vegetation provision in both the riparian zone and the wider landscape. Future increases in the extent of urban environments in our study area are likely to negatively impact populations of several frog species. However, existing urban areas are unlikely to lose further frog species in the medium term. We recommend that landscape planning and management focus on the conservation and restoration of rural wetlands to arrest current declines, and the revegetation of urban wetlands to facilitate the re-expansion of urban-sensitive species