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Youth Climate Questions. Challenging Technofixes and a Call for Socio-political Action
Get PDFAnthropogenic climate change and environmental crises are pressing challenges of our time, with changes to the climate system observed in every global region. Disastrous impacts on nature, including people, have already been observed in the form of drought, floods and extreme heat events across the planet. This study examines the role of an inter-disciplinary approach to exploring different responses to climate-related disasters and potential disasters. The work we report takes place in the context of recent research on dialogue on climate interventions with youth. Climate interventions are large-scale interventions into the Earth's climate system and include proposals such as solar radiation management , ocean liming, and carbon capture and storage technologies. Research and development of climate interventions as a response to one set of disasters (in the present and in-the-making), created as a result of anthropogenic climate change, are associated with much uncertainty and controversy. We explored these uncertainties and controversies with young people, scientists and policymakers, resulting in a set of illustrated climate conversation cards. In this paper, we analyse the questions produced by young people to find requests for data and knowledge from across disciplines, and for an exploration of ethics , feelings, positions and priorities. We also found problematisations of technofixes and desire for socio-political action. The implications for science and disaster education are discussed
Specialist river birds as bioindicators of freshwater ecosystem health in the face of complex environmental change
No full textRivers are one of the most important and sensitive ecosystems globally, subject to environmental pressures integrated across local, landscape and catchment scales. There is a growing need to effectively assess their ecological health to inform management strategies for their restoration and conservation, yet detecting the impacts of multiple integrated stressors is also challenging. Bioindicators can reflect the state of an environment and offer a relatively cheap alternative or complementary approach to traditional direct measures. Predatory, obligate riverine birds are promising candidates for indicating riverine health, with White-throated Dipper at the forefront of research due to their sensitivity to a broad range of pressures. However, other riverine specialists such as Grey Wagtail and Common Sandpiper that have divergent life histories and ecologies may improve capture of the intersection of riverine, riparian, and nearby terrestrial ecosystems that ultimately affect riverine health.
This thesis examines the responses of these focal species to integrated stressors affecting riverine and riparian ecosystems in Britain, progressing our understanding of their potential role as broad indicators of ecological health. Chapter 2 explores the environmental drivers of spatial variation in occupancy and abundance of the three species. Findings demonstrate that occupancy, and to a lesser extent, abundance is controlled by underlying physiography and land cover at channel, local landscape, and catchment scales, upscaling existing knowledge to catchment-scale pressures. Chapter 3 examines responses to varying weather conditions. This analysis highlights the multiple direct and indirect pressures that temperature and rainfall impose, but the varying effects on these species likely reflects their contrasting breeding strategies. Chapter 4 investigates the association between Dipper breeding performance, breeding density and clutch initiation in a well-studied catchment. Findings suggest that clutch initiation date is a stronger driver of breeding performance than breeding density, but high variability within and among years may be obscured by overall trends
Games Wide Open to athlete partnership in building artificial intelligence systems
Get PDFIn the spirit of Paris 2024’s slogan, “Games Wide Open,” the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in sports medicine aims to open new frontiers for athlete health and performance. Athletes and patients are increasingly recognized as essential partners in developing and implementing AI systems in sports medicine and science. AI systems in sports medicine have several possible applications, including diagnostic tools, behavior and performance monitoring systems, and external devices that monitor vital signs, sleep patterns, or other health metrics. These monitoring applications help in real-time assessment and management of an athlete’s health, enabling timely interventions and optimizing performance
The PHEM-B toolbox of methods for incorporating the influences on Behaviour into Public Health Economic Models
Get PDFBackground It is challenging to predict long-term outcomes of interventions without understanding how they work. Health economic models of public health interventions often do not incorporate the many determinants of individual and population behaviours that influence long term effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to draw on psychology, sociology, behavioural economics, complexity science and health economics to: (a) develop a toolbox of methods for incorporating the influences on behaviour into public health economic models (PHEM-B); and (b) set out a research agenda for health economic modellers and behavioural/ social scientists to further advance methods to better inform public health policy decisions. Methods A core multidisciplinary group developed a preliminary toolbox from a published review of the literature and tested this conceptually using a case study of a diabetes prevention simulation. The core group was augmented by a much wider group that covered a broader range of multidisciplinary expertise. We used a consensus method to gain agreement of the PHEM-B toolbox. This included a one-day workshop and subsequent reviews of the toolbox. Results The PHEM-B toolbox sets out 12 methods which can be used in different combinations to incorporate influences on behaviours into public health economic models: collaborations between modellers and behavioural scientists, literature reviewing, application of the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology, systems mapping, agent-based modelling, differential equation modelling, social network analysis, geographical information systems, discrete event simulation, theory-informed statistical and econometric analyses, expert elicitation, and qualitative research/process tracing. For each method, we provide a description with key references, an expert consensus on the circumstances when they could be used, and the resources required. Conclusions This is the first attempt to rigorously and coherently propose methods to incorporate the influences on behaviour into health economic models of public health interventions. It may not always be feasible or necessary to model the influences on behaviour explicitly, but it is essential to develop an understanding of the key influences. Changing behaviour and maintaining that behaviour change could have different influences; thus, there could be benefits in modelling these separately. Future research is needed to develop, collaboratively with behavioural scientists, a suite of more robust health economic models of health-related behaviours, reported transparently, including coding, which would allow model reuse and adaptation
Updated distribution of spotted hyaenas in Gabon reveals resident populations
Get PDFSpotted hyaena distribution currently widely encompasses sub-Saharan Africa, apart from the Congo Basin. Formerly described as residents of Gabon but considered extinct, vagrant individuals have been recorded since 2003, but no systematic species presence assessment has been made. Based on records of killed individuals, tracks and camera-trap sightings, we show that not only vagrant individuals are roaming in Gabon, but a small resident population occurs in the North-East of the country. The records collated here formed the basis for spotted hyaenas to be listed as protected in Gabon, were included in the IUCN Red List species' range map update and showcased the importance of large-scale by-catch data analysis in updating species distributions.Additional authors: Lilian Brice Mangama Koumba, Wilfried Mbombe Tsongue, Fred Loique Mindonga Nguelet, Brice Roxan Momboua, Stephan Ntie, Ange Nzamba Ibouanga, Brave Sévère Nzamba, Christophe Roland Zinga Koumba, Christian Rembeyo, Hugh S. Robinson, Morgane Scalbert, Philipp Hensche
Utopian Method: Reimagining Age Expectations and Intergenerational Relationships Through Reader Responses to Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book (1972)
Get PDFWe analyze reader responses to Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book to suggest the novel offers a platform from which to imagine new, often utopian, thresholds of aging and intergenerational relationships. We suggest the way literature encourages utopian thinking is two-fold, allowing readers to reflect on the current state of the world around them and encouraging them to reimagine new possibilities. The aim of the reading groups was to use the novel to reflect on current age norms – socially, culturally, and politically – and reimagine new social futures relating to intergenerational relationships. In this paper, we discuss the findings from using The Summer Book as a platform to discuss attitudes to aging, time, intergenerational relationships, and age expectations. Participants opened up a number of avenues to reimagine age expectations, categories, and relationships, whilst also relating the fiction to their own experiences, which then often translated into discussions of how age-based stereotypes and intergenerational relationships need to be radically rethought. There were three main themes that we identified from these discussions: 1) countering age-expectations on the intergenerational island, 2) creating counter-narratives through the character of the Grandmother, 3) using the novel’s relational behaviors and practices to imagine better futures for intergenerational relationships
Breastfeeding frequency and incidence of type 2 diabetes among women with previous gestational diabetes compared to those without: a historical cohort study in the UK
Get PDFBackground There is a growing body of research to suggest that women with gestational diabetes are less likely to initiate and continue breastfeeding than those who have not had however findings are mixed. There is limited research in the UK assessing the frequency of breastfeeding in women with gestational diabetes, none reporting the association of breastfeeding with incidence of type 2 diabetes and existing research has not adequately adjusted for potential confounders. This study aims to assess frequency of breastfeeding among women with gestational diabetes compared to those without, and to explore how breastfeeding influences risk of future type 2 diabetes in women with gestational diabetes while adjusting for known confounders. Methods Historical cohort study using routinely collected health care data from Fife and Tayside Health Boards, Scotland, UK including all women diagnosed with gestational diabetes between 1993 and 2015 and a matched comparator cohort (n = 4,968). Women with gestational diabetes were followed up until a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes, the end of the study, or date of death. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios for breastfeeding for the whole sample and the association between breastfeeding and development of type 2 diabetes in women with gestational diabetes was assessed by Cox regression. Results Women with a diagnosis of gestational diabetes, who were younger, overweight/obese or living in the most deprived areas were significantly less likely to exclusively breastfeed for a duration of longer than eight weeks. Risk of developing type 2 diabetes among women with gestational diabetes was significantly higher for those who exclusively breastfed less than 8 weeks, lived in the most deprived areas or had a family history of diabetes. Conclusions This study confirms the important role of a short duration of exclusive breastfeeding in protecting women with gestational diabetes against type 2 diabetes but highlights the challenges to breastfeeding in this group. Interventions are needed to support breastfeeding among women with gestational diabetes that are acceptable to younger, overweight/obese women living in deprived areas
Eliminating episodic memory?
Get PDFIn Tulving’s initial characterization, episodic memory was one of multiple memory systems. It was postulated, in pursuit of explanatory depth, as displaying proprietary operations, representations and substrates such as to explain a range of cognitive, behavioural and experiential phenomena. Yet the subsequent development of this research programme has, paradoxically, introduced surprising doubts about the nature, and indeed existence, of episodic memory. On dominant versions of the ‘common system’ view, on which a single simulation system underlies both remembering and imagining, there are no processes unique to memory to support robust generalizations with inductive potential. Eliminativism about episodic memory seems to follow from the claim that it has no dedicated neurocognitive system of its own. After identifying this undernoticed threat, we push back against modern eliminativists by surveying recent evidence that still indicates specialized mechanisms, computations and representations that are distinctly mnemic in character. We argue that contemporary realists about episodic memory can retain lessons of the common system approach while resisting the further move to eliminativism. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Elements of episodic memory: lessons from 40 years of research’
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