Anthropogenic-based regional-scale factors most consistently explain plot-level exotic diversity in grasslands

Aim Evidence linking the accumulation of exotic species to the suppression of native diversity is equivocal, often relying on data from studies that have used different methods. Plot-level studies often attribute inverse relationships between native and exotic diversity to competition, but regional abiotic filters, including anthropogenic influences, can produce similar patterns.We seek to test these alternatives using identical scale-dependent sampling protocols in multiple grasslands on two continents. Location Thirty-two grassland sites in North America and Australia. Methods We use multiscale observational data, collected identically in grain and extent at each site, to test the association of local and regional factors with the plot-level richness and abundance of native and exotic plants. Sites captured environmental and anthropogenic gradients including land-use intensity, human population density, light and soil resources, climate and elevation. Site selection occurred independently of exotic diversity, meaning that the numbers of exotic species varied randomly thereby reducing potential biases if only highly invaded sites were chosen. Results Regional factors associated directly or indirectly with human activity had the strongest associations with plot-level diversity. These regional drivers had divergent effects: urban-based economic activity was associated with high exotic : native diversity ratios; climate- and landscape-based indicators of lower human population density were associated with low exotic : native ratios. Negative correlations between plot-level native and exotic diversity, a potential signature of competitive interactions, were not prevalent; this result did not change along gradients of productivity or heterogeneity. Main conclusion We show that plot-level diversity of native and exotic plants are more consistently associatedwith regional-scale factors relating to urbanization and climate suitability than measures indicative of competition. These findings clarify the long-standing difficulty in resolving drivers of exotic diversity using single-factor mechanisms, suggesting that multiple interacting anthropogenic-based processes best explain the accumulation of exotic diversity in modern landscapes.

Promoting resilience and effective workplace functioning in international students in health courses

The purpose of this project was to improve the quality of the learning experiences of international students in nursing, public health and nutrition and dietetics, both at university and in the clinical setting. The university worked in partnership with three major metropolitan health care facilities/services in Queensland to develop a framework and resources designed to promote quality work-integrated learning experiences for international students and clinical supervisory staff. The Resilience in International Student Education (RISE) model consists of student and staff workshops complemented by a purpose-built Cultural Connections for Learning (CCL) website that provides access to a wide variety of information and other learning resources. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations indicate that the approach is highly valued by participants as it promotes useful dialogue, sharing of experiences and greater understanding regarding quality learning experiences for international students in the health workplace. It provides an ideal springboard for promoting collaboration between international students and clinical supervisors in the workplace. The resources developed have the potential to enhance student learning as well as clinical teaching. The challenge will be to achieve continued progress within international student education through the development of sustainable strategies to embed the program within the context of individual curricula.

The prevention of childhood anxiety and promotion of resilience among preschool-aged children : a universal school based trial

This study is the first to examine the effectiveness of the Fun FRIENDS programme, a school-based, universal preventive intervention for early childhood anxiety and promotion of resilience delivered by classroom teachers. Participants (N = 488) included children aged 4–7 years attending 1 of 14 Catholic Education schools in Brisbane, Australia. The schools were randomly allocated to one of three groups, the intervention, active comparison and waitlist control group. Parents completed standardized measures of anxiety and behavioural inhibition (BI), resilience, social and emotional functioning and behaviour difficulties in addition to parental stress and anxiety, at pre- and post- and 12-month follow-up. Teachers also completed a parallel measure of social and emotional strength at the three time points. Comparable results were obtained for the intervention and comparison groups; however, the intervention group (IG) achieved greater reductions in BI, child behavioural difficulties and improvements in social and emotional competence. In addition, significant improvements in parenting distress and parent–child interactions were found for the IG, with gains maintained at 12-month follow-up. Teacher reports revealed more significant improvement in social and emotional competence for the IG. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed, along with limitations and directions for future research.

The rurality of sex : community resistance and objection to prostitution in rural and regional areas throughout Queensland

Queensland legislation currently defines two legally recognised forms of prostitution: sex work conducted in a licensed brothel; or, sex work conducted privately by a sole operator.Despite prostitution’s legality in these contexts, it continues to be heavily controlled and restricted by authorities, while also being rejected by surrounding communities. Such resistance towards prostitution is demonstrated in Queensland where over 200 towns with populations of less than 25,000 have been successful in applying for exemption from the development of licensed brothels in those jurisdictions (Prostitution Licensing Authority 2012). Queensland’s legislative acknowledgement of prostitution as a legal act, while simultaneously allowing small communities to reject such activity, seems somewhat contradictory. This paper will provide a theoretical examination of common community objections to prostitution in modern society, determining whether such attitudes are applicable to communities in rural and regional Queensland towns. Additionally, this paper will incorporate an analysis of rural and urban areas via the ‘gemeinschaft‐gesellschaft’ dichotomy to understand the potential justification for opposing areas being subject to differential treatment under the law.

Assessing resilience of water supply systems under the impacts of climate change

This project was a step forward in developing the scientific basis for a methodology to assess the resilience of water supply systems under the impacts of climate change. The improved measure of resilience developed in this project provides an approach to assess the ability of water supply systems to absorb the pressure due changing climate while sustaining supply, and their speed of recovery in case of failure. The approach developed can be applied to any generic water supply system.

Promoting resilience in children with intellectual disability : a randomized controlled trial in Australian schools

Children with intellectual disability are more vulnerable to adverse developmental outcomes because of the lifelong risks associated with cognitive impairment. Difficulties with learning and adaptive behaviour inevitably produce considerable personal, social and economic disadvantage. Of concern is consistent evidence that psychiatric disorders affect a substantial proportion of people with intellectual disability. The estimated prevalence rate of between 35 and 49 % is three times that found in the general population (Wallander, Dekker, & Koot, 2006). Until recently, mental illness has been relatively neglected for people with intellectual disability, especially in relation to prevention or early detection (Kolaitis, 2008) and most research to date has been descriptive rather than focused on intervention (Bouras, 2013). Yet a considerable body of evidence demonstrates that efficacious interventions do exist for preventing psychopathology and enhancing resilience in typically developing children and adolescents (see Mallin, Walker, & Levin, 2013 for a review). In order to prevent the high comorbidity of intellectual disability and psychopathology, there is a compelling need for evidence-based practices that promote the resilience of individuals with intellectual disability (Matson, Terlonge, & Minshawi, 2008). In this chapter, we describe a randomized controlled trial of an intervention that was designed to enhance the resilience of a group of children with mild intellectual disability as they prepared to make the transition to high school. We report results from our evaluation of this intervention, and reflect on the difficulties of providing successful interventions for children whose lives are complicated not only by intellectual disability, but also by a range of contextual disadvantages.

Validation of a framework for measuring hospital disaster resilience using factor analysis

Hospital disaster resilience can be defined as “the ability of hospitals to resist, absorb, and respond to the shock of disasters while maintaining and surging essential health services, and then to recover to its original state or adapt to a new one.” This article aims to provide a framework which can be used to comprehensively measure hospital disaster resilience. An evaluation framework for assessing hospital resilience was initially proposed through a systematic literature review and Modified-Delphi consultation. Eight key domains were identified: hospital safety, command, communication and cooperation system, disaster plan, resource stockpile, staff capability, disaster training and drills, emergency services and surge capability, and recovery and adaptation. The data for this study were collected from 41 tertiary hospitals in Shandong Province in China, using a specially designed questionnaire. Factor analysis was conducted to determine the underpinning structure of the framework. It identified a four-factor structure of hospital resilience, namely, emergency medical response capability (F1), disaster management mechanisms (F2), hospital infrastructural safety (F3), and disaster resources (F4). These factors displayed good internal consistency. The overall level of hospital disaster resilience (F) was calculated using the scoring model: F = 0.615F1 + 0.202F2 + 0.103F3 + 0.080F4. This validated framework provides a new way to operationalise the concept of hospital resilience, and it is also a foundation for the further development of the measurement instrument in future studies.

Disaster resilience in tertiary hospitals : a cross-sectional survey in Shandong Province, China

Background: Hospital disaster resilience can be defined as a hospital’s ability to resist, absorb, and respond to the shock of disasters while maintaining critical functions, and then to recover to its original state or adapt to a new one. This study aims to explore the status of resilience among tertiary hospitals in Shandong Province, China. Methods: A stratified random sample (n = 50) was derived from tertiary A, tertiary B, and tertiary C hospitals in Shandong Province, and was surveyed by questionnaire. Data on hospital characteristics and 8 key domains of hospital resilience were collected and analysed. Variables were binary, and analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies. Results: A response rate of 82% (n = 41) was attained. Factor analysis identified four key factors from eight domains which appear to reflect the overall level of disaster resilience. These were hospital safety, disaster management mechanisms, disaster resources and disaster medical care capability. The survey demonstrated that in regard to hospital safety, 93% had syndromic surveillance systems for infectious diseases and 68% had evaluated their safety standards. In regard to disaster management mechanisms, all had general plans, while only 20% had specific plans for individual hazards. 49% had a public communication protocol and 43.9% attended the local coordination meetings. In regard to disaster resources, 75.6% and 87.5% stockpiled emergency drugs and materials respectively, while less than a third (30%) had a signed Memorandum of Understanding with other hospitals to share these resources. Finally in regard to medical care, 66% could dispatch an on-site medical rescue team, but only 5% had a ‘portable hospital’ function and 36.6% and 12% of the hospitals could surge their beds and staff capacity respectively. The average beds surge capacity within 1 day was 13%. Conclusions: This study validated the broad utility of a framework for understanding and measuring the level of hospital resilience. The survey demonstrated considerable variability in disaster resilience arrangements of tertiary hospitals in Shandong province, and the difference between tertiary A hospitals and tertiary B hospitals was also identified in essential areas.

Assessing community resilience to climate change

Settlements and communities in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) are highly vulnerable to climate change and face an uncertain social, economic and environmental future. The concept of community resilience is gaining momentum as stakeholders and institutions seek to better understand the social, economic and governance factors which affect community capacity to adapt in the face of climate change. This paper defines a framework to benchmark community resilience and applies it to a case study in the Wet Tropics in tropical Queensland within the GBR catchment. It finds that rural, indigenous and some urban populations are highly vulnerable and sensitive to climate change, particularly in terms of economic vitality, community knowledge, aspirations and capacity for adaptation. Without early and substantive action, this could result in declining social and economic wellbeing and natural resource health. Capacity to manage the possible shocks associated with the impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events is emerging and needs to be carefully fostered and further developed to achieve broader community resilience outcomes. Better information about what actions, policies and arrangements build community resilience and mobilise adaptive capacity in the face of climate change is needed.

Managed livestock grazing is compatible with the maintenance of plant diversity in semidesert grasslands

Even when no baseline data are available, the impacts of 150 years of livestock grazing on natural grasslands can be assessed using a combined approach of grazing manipulation and regional-scale assessment of the flora. Here, we demonstrate the efficacy of this method across 18 sites in the semidesert Mitchell grasslands of northeastern Australia. Fifteen-year-old exclosures (ungrazed and macropod grazed) revealed that the dominant perennial grasses in the genus Astrebla do not respond negatively to grazing disturbance typical of commercial pastoralism. Neutral, positive, intermediate, and negative responses to grazing disturbance were recorded amongst plant species with no single life-form group associated with any response type. Only one exotic species, Cenchrus ciliaris, was recorded at low frequency. The strongest negative response was from a native annual grass, Chionachne hubbardiana, an example of a species that is highly sensitive to grazing disturbance. Herbarium records revealed only scant evidence that species with a negative response to grazing have declined through the period of commercial pastoralism. A regional analysis identified 14 from a total of 433 plant species in the regional flora that may be rare and potentially threatened by grazing disturbance. However, a targeted survey precluded grazing as a cause of decline for seven of these based on low palatability and positive responses to grazing and other disturbance. Our findings suggest that livestock grazing of semidesert grasslands with a short evolutionary history of ungulate grazing has altered plant composition, but has not caused declines in the dominant perennial grasses or in species richness as predicted by the preceding literature. The biggest impact of commercial pastoralism is the spread of woody leguminous trees that can transform grassland to thorny shrubland. The conservation of plant biodiversity is largely compatible with commercial pastoralism provided these woody weeds are controlled, but reserves strategically positioned within water remote areas are necessary to protect grazing-sensitive species. This study demonstrates that a combination of experimental studies and regional surveys can be used to understand anthropogenic impacts on natural ecosystems where reference habitat is not available.

Promoting posttraumatic growth in police recruits : preliminary results of a randomised controlled resilience intervention trial

Recent research has demonstrated that the same experiences that may elicit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in emergency service personnel can also provide a catalyst for positive personal changes such as posttraumatic growth (PTG). In this research newly recruited police officers (N = 412) participated in a randomised control trial of a program specifically designed to promote mental health. On entry to the academy, new recruits were randomly allocated, by classrooms, to either a treatment as usual condition (i.e., existing psychoeducation program) or to the intervention group. The Promoting Resilient Officers (PRO) program is a resilience building intervention adapted from an earlier resilience building program in collaboration with the police service. The PRO program also includes additional components on trauma and PTG. The current research included the participants who had experienced trauma prior to or during the research period (N = 246). It was hypothesised that participation in the PRO program would increase levels of PTG and lower levels of PTSD when compared to recruits in the control condition. Using multilevel modelling and post-hoc analyses, results indicated there were significantly higher levels of PTG across multiple dimensions when compared to the control group. There was no effect on PTSD symptoms with both conditions showing a floor effect. The research indicated the potential value of developing interventions that elicit reflections on the potential for positive as well as negative outcomes of experiencing traumatic and other highly challenging events.

Regional trade-offs between mine water and energy use : a water treatment case study

The mining industry faces concurrent pressures of reducing water use, energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coming years. However, the interactions between water and energy use, as well as GHG e missions have largely been neglected in modelling studies to date. In addition, investigations tend to focus on the unit operation scale, with little consideration of whole-of-site or regional scale effects. This paper presents an application of a hierarchical systems model (HSM) developed to represent water, energy and GHG emissions fluxes at scales ranging from the unit operation, to the site level, to the regional level. The model allows for the linkages between water use, energy use and GHG emissions to be examined in a fl exible and intuitive way, so that mine sites can predict energy and emissions impacts of water use reduction schemes and vice versa. This paper examines whether this approach can also be applied to the regional scale with multiple mine sites. The model is used to conduct a case study of several coal mines in the Bowen Basin, Australia, to compare the utility of centralised and decentralised mine water treatment schemes. The case study takes into account geographical factors (such as water pumping distances and elevations), economic factors (such as capital and operating cost curves for desalination treatment plants) and regional factors (such as regionally varying climates and associated variance in mine water volumes and quality). The case study results indicate that treatment of saline mine water incurs a trade-off between water and energy use in all cases. However, significant cost differences between centralised and decentralised schemes can be observed in a simple economic analysis. Further research will examine the possibility for deriving model up-scaling algorithms to reduce computational requirements.

Epigenetic mechanisms mediating vulnerability and resilience to psychiatric disorders

The impact that stressful encounters have upon long-lasting behavioural phenotypes is varied. Whereas a significant proportion of the population will develop "stress-related" conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder or depression in later life, the majority are considered "resilient" and are able to cope with stress and avoid such psychopathologies. The reason for this heterogeneity is undoubtedly multi-factorial, involving a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Both genes and environment are of critical importance when it comes to developmental processes, and it appears that subtle differences in either of these may be responsible for altering developmental trajectories that confer vulnerability or resilience. At the molecular level, developmental processes are regulated by epigenetic mechanisms, with recent clinical and pre-clinical data obtained by ourselves and others suggesting that epigenetic differences in various regions of the brain are associated with a range of psychiatric disorders, including many that are stress-related. Here we provide an overview of how these epigenetic differences, and hence susceptibility to psychiatric disorders, might arise through exposure to stress-related factors during critical periods of development.