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Variation in food resources can result in dramatic fluctuations in the body condition of animals dependent on those resources. Decreases in body mass can disrupt patterns of energy allocation and impose stress, thereby altering immune function. In this study we investigated links between changes in body mass of captive cane toads (Rhinella marina), their circulating white blood cell populations, and their performance in immune assays. Captive toads that lost weight over a 3-month period had increased levels of monocytes and heterophils and reduced levels of eosinophils. Basophil and lymphocyte levels were unrelated to changes in mass. Because individuals that lost mass had higher heterophil levels but stable lymphocyte levels, the ratio of these cell types was also higher, partially consistent with a stress response. Phagocytic ability of whole blood was higher in toads that lost mass, due to increased circulating levels of phagocytic cells. Other measures of immune performance were unrelated to mass change. These results highlight the challenges faced by invasive species as they expand their range into novel environments which may impose substantial seasonal changes in food availability that were not present in the native range. Individuals facing energy restrictions may shift their immune function towards more economical and general avenues of combating pathogens.

In the face of increasingly frequent extreme weather events, the need to manage climate risk becomes more urgent, especially for the most vulnerable countries and communities. With the aim of reducing vulnerability, climate risk transfer in the form of climate risk insurance (CRI) has been gaining attention in climate policy discussions. When properly designed, CRI acts as a safety net against climate change impacts by providing financial support after an extreme weather event. Two main types of insurance enable payouts: indemnity (traditional) insurance or predefined parameters (index-based) insurance. Individuals, groups, or even governments may take out policies with either type of insurance and receive payouts directly (insurer to beneficiary payout) or indirectly (insurer to aggregator to beneficiary payout). Direct insurance is usually implemented at the micro-level with individual policyholders. Indirect insurance is usually implemented through group contracts at the meso-level through risk aggregators and at the macro-level through the state. While promising, risk transfer in the form of CRI also has its share of challenges. Within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the lack of accessibility and affordability of CRI for poor and vulnerable groups have been identified as barriers to uptake. In light of climate justice, asking the poor and climate-vulnerable groups - most of whom do not contribute substantially to anthropogenic climate change - to solely carry the financial burden of risk transfer is anything but just. Employing a human rights-based approach to CRI may ensure that the resilience of poor and climate-vulnerable groups is enhanced in a climate-just manner. Indigenous peoples are some of the poorest and most climate vulnerable groups. Often marginalised, they rarely have access to social protection. The strong communal relationship of indigenous peoples facilitates their participation in community-based organisations (CBOs). CBOs are a suitable vehicle for meso-insurance, in which risk is aggregated and an insurance policy belongs to a group. In this way, CBOs can facilitate service provision that would otherwise be beyond the reach of individuals. Conclusions of this briefing paper draw on a conceptual analysis of meso-insurance and the results of field research conducted in March 2018 with indigenous Palaw’ans in the Philippines. We find that CRI needs to be attuned to the differential vulnerabilities and capacities of its beneficiaries. This is particularly true for poor and vulnerable people, for whom issues of accessibility and affordability need to be managed, and human rights and pro-poor approaches need to be ensured. In this context, meso-insurance is a promising approach when it provides accessibility and affordability and promotes a pro-poor and human rights-based approach of risk transfer by: Properly identifying and involving target beneficiaries and duty-bearers by employing pro-poor and human rights principles. Employing measures to improve the financial literacy of target beneficiaries. Designing insurance models from the bottom up. Briefing Paper

Endemic and imported vector- and rodent-borne infectious agents can be linked to high morbidity and mortality. Therefore, vector- and rodent-borne human diseases and the effects of climate change are important public health issues.For this review, the relevant literature was identified and evaluated according to the thematic aspects and supplemented with an analysis of surveillance data for Germany.Factors such as increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, and human behaviour may influence the epidemiology of vector- and rodent-borne infectious diseases in Germany.The effects of climatic changes on the spread of vector- and rodent-borne infectious diseases need to be further studied in detail and considered in the context of climate adaptation measures.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is one of the top ten global public health threats facing humanity, alongside climate change. Here, we aim to summarise the effects of climate change (i.e. raise of temperature, change in humidity or precipitation) on spread of antibiotic resistance and on infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria in Germany.We conducted a literature search with articles published between January 2012 and July 2022. Two authors screened titles, abstracts and full texts and extracted the data systematically.From originally 2,389 titles, we identified six studies, which met our inclusion criteria. These studies show that an increase in temperature may lead to higher antibiotic resistance rates and an increased risk of colonisation as well as spread of pathogens. Furthermore, the number of healthcare-associated infections increases with increased temperature. Data indicate that higher antibiotic use is present in areas with warmer mean temperature.European data are scarce, but all studies identified point towards an increasing AMR burden due to climate change. However, further studies are needed to draw attention to the links between climatic factors and AMR and develop targeted preventive measures.

The furious pace of global urbanisation has serious impacts on the long-term sustainability and health of the local communities in which we live. The debate about relationships between population size, environmental management and human well-being must now encompass the fundamental concept of sustainability (Rees, 1992; WCED, 1990; McMichael, 2002; Hancock, 1996). Increasingly, the local municipal level is the most influential setting in which to change our relationship with the environment (Chu, 1994; Chu et al., 2000). In the 1980s, the World Health Organisation (WHO) met this global challenge by advocating healthy public policy and laying foundations for its global Healthy Cities Movement. Significant support developed in the early nineties for participatory health planning action in local government: over 2000 cities world-wide developed municipal public health plans (MPH Plans). The Healthy Cities Movement through regional networks of cities and towns encouraged government partnerships with non-government agencies and industry, to anticipate and mitigate urbanisation’s negative impacts. In Queensland eighteen local governments have developed and implemented MPH Plans using a seven-step process (Chapman and Davey, 1997; WHO (1997b) to improve local planning for health and address the social determinants of health through agency collaboration. There is however limited understanding and evidence of the success factors for the effective implementation of MPH Plans. Studies of the evaluation of Municipal Public Health Planning (MPHP) approaches have focused predominately on the evaluation of the process of planning, without conducting comprehensive evaluation of its implementation. The organisational barriers that contribute to ineffective health-planning implementation have not been well researched and documented. Here lies the gap in the research: MPHP requires thorough qualitative assessment, not only of the planning process, but also the implementation impacts. This research explores the achievements, barriers and success factors associated with MPHP implementation in local government organisations by developing a process and impact evaluation framework and applying it to two MPHP projects in Queensland: one, local planning in an expanding tourist city of over 400,000 people; the second, a regional approach involving two provincial cities with a combined population of 100,000 residents. The research examines the degree of collaboration resulting from health planning and assesses if the aims of the MPH Plans have been met. MPHP is both a health promotion tool and a strategic business planning process applied in local communities: this research seeks to understand more about organisational strategic management issues that act as barriers to planning or impact on the success of planning outcomes. This study design uses qualitative methods with a triangulation approach to analyse and understand the complexities of MPH Plan implementation. Grounded theory provides a methodology for interpreting meanings and discovering themes from the comprehensive process and impact evaluation consisting of preliminary cases studies, key informant interviews, using specific process and impact indicator questions and an analysis of MPHP models compared to other CPHP models and legislative frameworks. The impacts of the intervention are discussed and relate to the implementation effects of MPHP on individuals and organisations including council, government and non-government agencies and on the community. Achievements and barriers associated with MPHP are identified and discussed. Three main factors emerged. Firstly, MPHP had significantly increased the degree of intersectoral collaboration between the agency project partners, with particular success in clarifying the role of agencies in the management and delivery of public health services. The principles of successful partnerships need to be further articulated in local government settings to successfully implement MPHP. Secondly, positive political and organisational support was found to be a critical factor in the success of the planning implementation. Thirdly, and most importantly, the aims of the MPHP had not been substantially met due to a lack of financial and human resources. The study concluded that, although MPHP has strengths and weaknesses compared to other CPHP models, its features most suit local government. Success factors recommended for effective MPHP include formalising collaboration and partnerships and improved agency organisational governance in planning; building individual and organisational capacity to strengthen strategic planning; integrating the many layers of regulatory planning in local government and other agencies; sustaining planning structures and processes through regulation and commitment to investment in implementation stages of MPHP. The study’s major recommendation is that, for MPHP local government should facilitate a three-dimensional platform approach: healthy governance – long-term vision, recognising the many layers of planning, supported by state legislation and local industry and with awareness of legislative planning frameworks; a platform mechanism – sustaining agency networking, hosting the stakeholder forum, supporting the advisory committee, enhancing communication; and strategy implementation – in the context of an improved understanding of organisational behaviour, local government and agencies must action priority strategies, formalising agency partners responsibility, articulating desired outcomes, monitoring progress and evaluation. This recommended Platform Approach to MPHP provides an effective model for managing and implementing future MPH Plans, allocating resources three ways: to build people’s capacity to engage in planning mechanisms, to build organisational capacity to manage planning outcomes and to build more effective Healthy Cities planning approaches. The MPHP evaluation framework developed in this thesis could be used to evaluate other MPHP projects in local governments both in Australia and internationally.

This paper investigates the environmental conditions of nineteenth-century Istanbul’s healthscape. A hydroclimate June/July reconstruction of the Old World Drought Atlas (OWDA) shows the city repeatedly suffered from hot and arid summers throughout the century. Excessive heat produced swamps. Vector-borne diseases and waterborne diseases increased. Because of water scarcity and soaring temperatures, sanitary conditions deteriorated. Animals suffered and perished, the workforce declined, transportation costs increased, and living costs became extravagant. In particular, high firewood prices and water scarcity especially increased the costs of public baths. Climate change had destructive effects on the city’s early industrial period. The following text presents the long-term, cumulative stress on living beings and highlights how excessive summer temperatures affected the landscape and economy of nineteenth-century Istanbul.

In the debates over environmental impacts on migration, migration as adaptation has been acknowledged as a potential risk management strategy based on risk spreading and mutual insurance of people living spatially apart: migrants and family members that are left behind stay connected through a combination of financial and social remittances, joint decision-making and mutual commitment. Conceptualizing migration as adaptation through the lens of translocal livelihood systems enables us to identify the differentiated vulnerabilities of households and communities. COVID-19 and the restrictions on public life and mobility imposed by governments worldwide constituted a complex set of challenges for translocal systems and strategies, especially in the Global South. Focusing on examples, we highlight two points: first, the COVID-19 crisis shows the limits of migration and translocal livelihoods for coping with, and adapting to, climate and environmental risks. Second, as these restrictions hit on a systemic level and affect places of destination as well as origin, the crisis reveals specific vulnerabilities of the translocal livelihood systems themselves. Based on the translocal livelihoods approach, we formulate insights and recommendations for policies that move beyond the narrow, short-term focus on the support of migrant populations alone and address the longer-term root causes of the vulnerabilities in translocal livelihoods systems. Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2023): The COVID-19 Pandemic, (Im)Mobilities, and Migration in Southeast Asia

A major issue with all flow batteries is the control of the imbalance between the two half-cell electrolytes that arises as a result of the differential transfer of ions across the membrane and the inevitable gassing side reactions that can occur during charging. While a number of methods are available to rebalance electrolyte state of charge and restore capacity, reliable methods are needed to monitor the state-of-charge of each individual half-cell solution in order to determine the appropriate action to be taken by the battery control system. In this study different methods of state-of-charge monitoring have been considered for application in the All-Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VRB). Half-cell potentials and electrolyte conductivities were calibrated as a function of state-of-charge and evaluated for state-of-charge monitoring of individual half-cell electrolytes for the purpose of capacity restoration and control. An empirical model based on experimental conductivity data has been shown to provide accurate predictions, with an average error of 0.77%, of the conductivity of the positive half-cell electrolyte as a potential state-of-charge detection tool. Separate monitoring of the two half-cell electrolyte potentials has also been used to determine the state-of-charge of each half-cell solution in order to detect system imbalance. This was used in small laboratory cell tests to determine necessary actions to restore capacity by either remixing the two solutions, or by using chemical rebalancing methods, depending on the cause of the solution imbalance. European Chemical Bulletin, Vol 1, No 12 (2012): European Chemical Bulletin

Snakes are threatened by habitat degradation and anthropogenic impacts, while accidental encounters between humans and snakes may result in snakebite incidents. Thus, the conservation of snakes snakebite problem, a global public health emergency, are interconnected. I found four primary needs for a combined solution to satisfy both above causes. A species distribution model was employed to identify the ecological niches of 29 venomous snake species from Bangladesh and of ten cobra species (Naja) from Asia. At the local scale, flood events, forest types, ecosystems, and climatic parameters were found to shape the range of snake species in Bangladesh. At the regional scale, anthropogenic factors, like snake habitat destruction, trade, exploitation, and snake killings are likely to be the main causes for the decrease in populations of Asian Naja. At both levels, climate change causes shrinking and fragmenting the ecological niches of snake species in Bangladesh and Asia. In Bangladesh, the studied species may lose more than 90% of their current climatic niche within the next 50 years. In the same timeframe, Asiatic Naja may lose an average of 56% (12- 100%) of the area of suitable climatic niches. If favourable niches cannot be preserved, many snake species might go extinct from several countries in Asia in a few decades, including Bangladesh. In addition, the present study estimated that there might be more than double the amount of annual snakebite incidents in Bangladesh than previously estimated. As climate change may cause geographical shifting of favourable niches, this change may also have consequences for the frequency of snakebites, so snakebite should be considered a climate driven dynamic public health problem. While analysing venom variations and the efficacy of antivenom, I found that venom should be sampled from geographically or ecologically isolated populations of each venomous snake, because isolated populations have shown distinct intraspecific venom variations. Im Fokus dieser Dissertation steht die Zerstörung des Lebensraumes von Schlangen durch anthropogene Einflüsse im Zusammenhang mit dem Auftreten von Schlangenbissen bei Menschen. Zum Schutz der Schlangen und dem Problem der Schlangenbisse wurden vier wesentliche Anforderungen erarbeitet. Mit Hilfe eines Artenverteilungsmodells wurden die ökologischen Nischen von 29 Giftschlangenarten aus Bangladesch und von zehn Kobraarten (Naja) aus Asien ermittelt. Auf lokaler Ebene wurde festgestellt, dass Überschwemmungen, Waldtypen, Ökosysteme und klimatische Parameter das Verbreitungsgebiet der Schlangenarten in Bangladesch beeinflussen. Auf regionaler Ebene sind anthropogene Faktoren wie die Zerstörung von Schlangenlebensräumen, Handel, Ausbeutung und Tötung von Schlangen wahrscheinlich die Hauptursachen für den Rückgang der Populationen der asiatischen Naja. Auf beiden Ebenen führt der Klimawandel zu einer Verkleinerung der ökologischen Nischen von Schlangenarten in Bangladesch und Asien. In Bangladesch könnten die untersuchten Arten innerhalb der nächsten 50 Jahre mehr als 90 % ihren derzeitigen Lebensraum verlieren (Asiatische Naja durchschnittlich 56 % (12 bis 100 %)). Wenn günstige Nischen nicht erhalten werden können, könnten viele Schlangenarten in einigen Ländern Asiens, darunter Bangladesch, in wenigen Jahrzehnten aussterben. Darüber hinaus wurde in der vorliegenden Studie geschätzt, dass die Zahl der jährlichen Schlangenbisse in Bangladesch mehr als doppelt so hoch sein könnte wie bisher angenommen. Da der Klimawandel zu einer geografischen Verschiebung günstiger Nischen führen kann, kann sich diese Veränderung auch auf die Häufigkeit von Schlangenbissen auswirken. Bei der Analyse von Giftvariationen und der Wirksamkeit von Antivenomen wurde festgestellt, dass isolierte Populationen deutliche intraspezifischere Giftvariationen zeigen.