Releasing incompatible males drives strong suppression across populations of wild and Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti in Australia

Releasing sterile or incompatible male insects is a proven method of population management in agricultural systems with the potential to revolutionize mosquito control. Through a collaborative venture with the “Debug” Verily Life Sciences team, we assessed the incompatible insect technique (IIT) with the mosquito vector Aedes aegypti in northern Australia in a replicated treatment control field trial. Backcrossing a US strain of Ae. aegypti carrying Wolbachia wAlbB from Aedes albopictus with a local strain, we generated a wAlbB2-F4 strain incompatible with both the wild-type (no Wolbachia) and wMel-Wolbachia Ae. aegypti now extant in North Queensland. The wAlbB2-F4 strain was manually mass reared with males separated from females using Verily sex-sorting technologies to obtain no detectable female contamination in the field. With community consent, we delivered a total of three million IIT males into three isolated landscapes of over 200 houses each, releasing ∼50 males per house three times a week over 20 wk. Detecting initial overflooding ratios of between 5:1 and 10:1, strong population declines well beyond 80% were detected across all treatment landscapes when compared to controls. Monitoring through the following season to observe the ongoing effect saw one treatment landscape devoid of adult Ae. aegypti early in the season. A second landscape showed reduced adults, and the third recovered fully. These encouraging results in suppressing both wild-type and wMel-Ae. aegypti confirms the utility of bidirectional incompatibility in the field setting, show the IIT to be robust, and indicate that the removal of this arbovirus vector from human-occupied landscapes may be achievable.

A theoretical model for social licence to operate for the mining sector in South Eastern Europe

This thesis investigates the methodological narrowness used to interpret social license failure in the mining sector. Using a mixture of Actor-Network Theory (ANT), Poststructuralist theory, Political Settlement theory and knowledge from the mining industry, it investigates the core premises of existing models of social license, finding them lacking. It details challenges facing the mining sector, highlighting a disjoint operationally at a temporal level and spatial level between communities and industry. Representing the inability of the sector to address social licence failure as evidence of ontological narrowness in assessments of local community consent, it demonstrates it is the totality of relationships around the mine project that is critical. A new model predicated on a Political Settlement framework at a meso level, is created and populated as a visual model with icons. These icons, make up within the Social License Settlement Model (SLSM), a representation of the dynamic balancing act of relationships defining social license. The model is set in Thirdspace, reflecting that different participants have different perceptions of space, time and symbolism. The model was tested by showing how a social license was not solely about the mine and local communities but wider relationships. An examination of Rosa Montana mine project failure in Romania as it joined the EU, demonstrated that the process of ascension caused aspects of civil society to change, making securing a social license more difficult. Field research in Serbia, in a similar position in 2018 to Romania in terms of EU membership when Rosa Montana failed, with State mine regulator officials, private sector mine development actors and people living adjacent to mining projects. Similar issues with civil society appear likely to develop in Serbia, driven by the introduction of transnational environmental regulation. The SLSM captures how this might be avoided and mitigated.

Knowledge Translation in a Community-Based Study of the Relations Among Violence Exposure, Post-traumatic Stress and Alcohol Misuse in Mi’kmaq Youth

In 2004, our research group was invited to continue a research partnership with a Nova Scotian Mi’kmaq community that was concerned about the causes of and interventions for adolescent alcohol misuse in their community. While our previous collaborative research focused on reducing adolescent alcohol misuse by targeting motivations for drinking that were personality specific (see Mushquash, Comeau, & Stweart, 2007), the more recent collaboration sought to investigate the possible relationship between exposure to violence, post-traumatic stress, and alcohol misuse. The present paper outlines the steps involved in gaining community consent, the plan for results sharing, the tangible benefits to the community that have been documented, and future directions and lessons learned. The paper will demonstrate how the principles of Knowledge Translation (CIHR, 2006) provide a framework for this process.

How unfair is cross-community consent? Voting power in the Northern Ireland Assembly

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Data intensive science and the public good: Results of public deliberations in British Columbia, Canada

IntroductionResearch using linked data sets can lead to new insights and discoveries that positively impact society. However, the use of linked data raises concerns relating to illegitimate use, privacy, and security (e.g., identity theft, marginalization of some groups). It is increasingly recognized that the public needs to be consulted to develop data access systems that consider both the potential benefits and risks of research. Indeed, there are examples of data sharing projects being derailed because of backlash in the absence of adequate consultation. (e.g., care.data in the UK). Objectives and methodsThis talk will describe the results of public deliberations held in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 2018 and the fall of 2019. The purpose of these events was to develop informed and civic-minded public advice regarding the use and the sharing of linked data for research in the context of rapidly evolving data availability and researcher aspirations. ResultsIn the first deliberation, participants developed and voted on 19 policy-relevant statements. Taken together, these statements provide a broad view of public support and concerns regarding the use of linked data sets for research and offer guidance on measures that can be taken to improve the trustworthiness of policies and process around data sharing and use. The second deliberation will focus on the interplay between public and private sources of data, and role of individual and collective or community consent I the future. ConclusionGenerally, participants were supportive of research using linked data because of the value such uses can provide to society. Participants expressed a desire to see the data access request process made more efficient to facilitate more research, as long as there are adequate protections in place around security and privacy of the data. These protections include both physical and process-related safeguards as well as a high degree of transparency.

Youth Outdoor Feature Requirements in Urban Public Low-cost Housing

Youth is part of the community consent contributors. They are the energetic potency in fulfilling the social program and physical planning development. They are described as an active group in the community. The previous studies showed that youth shapes the pattern of lifestyle in neighbourhood units and even the nation itself. This paper will focus on the low-cost housing areas in which is high density and with scarce spaces as the existing facilities did not appear to attract youth's intention and even for their uses. As a result, reviewing the youth service requirements can enhance youth's quality of life.Keywords: Community Empowerment; Low-Cost Housing; Youth Facilities; Quality of Life eISSN 2398-4279 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.