Is there a role for not‐for‐profit or for‐purpose organizations in supporting governance professionals to engage with climate‐related opportunities and risks?

Climate change in Australia has become a political risk (for political parties) and a physical, transitional, and regulatory risk for businesses. Not‐for‐profits (NFPs) and for‐purpose (FPs) organisations, for example, Climate Alliance Limited, have acted in the absence of national climate risk policy, to support businesses to become better informed to manage their exposure to this risk, and helping them to set their own commitments and pathways to low and net zero carbon businesses. The objective of this article is to demonstrate, through the case study method, how one Australian NFP/FP has influenced the business sector and regulation. Climate Alliance Limited has done this through its interventions of (1) sharing case studies (best practices) on successful transitions to a low carbon business model and linking climate risk to business risk; (2) bringing thought leaders (advocacy) from the Bank of England and UK Prudential Regulator into the Australian finance and business sector; and (3) by offering a program (reward and recognition), showcasing how business leaders have and are adapting to climate risks and capturing business value.     

Differential aggressiveness between fire salamander (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Salamandra infraimmaculata</Emphasis>) larvae covaries with their genetic similarity

Responding differentially to kin and non-kin is known to be adaptive in many species. One example is the inclusive fitness benefits of reducing aggression toward closer relatives. Little is known, however, about the ability of animals to assess differential degrees of genetic relatedness and to respond accordingly with differential levels of aggression. In the present study, we tested whether aggressiveness between body mass-matched pairs of fire salamander (Salamandra infraimmaculata) larvae covaried with the genetic similarity between them. We quantified aggressiveness at three levels of genetic similarity by selecting pairs within and across pools from recently genotyped populations. We also assessed aggression between pairs of siblings. Aggression and associated injuries decreased as genetic similarity increased across the groups. These findings suggest that cannibalistic salamanders can assess their degree of genetic relatedness to conspecifics and vary their behavioral responses depending on the degree of similarity between them along a genetic relatedness continuum.     

Why are larvae of the social parasite wasp <Emphasis Type="Italic">Polistes sulcifer</Emphasis> not removed from the host nest?

A challenge for parasites is how to evade the sophisticated detection and rejection abilities of potential hosts. Many studies have shown how insect social parasites overcome host recognition systems and successfully enter host colonies. However, once a social parasite has successfully usurped an alien nest, its brood still face the challenge of avoiding host recognition. How immature stages of parasites fool the hosts has been little studied in social insects, though this has been deeply investigated in birds. We look at how larvae of the paper wasp obligate social parasite Polistes sulcifer fool their hosts. We focus on cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs), which are keys for adult recognition, and use behavioral recognition assays. Parasite larvae might camouflage themselves either by underproducing CHCs (odorless hypothesis) or by acquiring a chemical profile that matches that of their hosts. GC/MS analyses show that parasite larvae do not have lower levels of CHCs and that their CHCs profile is similar to the host larval profile but shows a reduced colony specificity. Behavioral tests show that the hosts discriminate against alien conspecific larvae from different colonies but are more tolerant towards parasite larvae. Our results demonstrate that parasite larvae have evolved a host larval profile, which overcomes the host colony recognition system probably because of the lower proportion of branched compounds compared to host larvae. In some ways, this is a similar hypothesis to the odorless hypothesis, but it assumes that the parasite larvae are covered by a chemical blend that is not meaningful to the host.     

经验正交函数方法和TRMM数据对长江流域降水模式与极端水文过程的研究

气候变化加剧了极端天气和水文事件的发生,降水是区域干旱与洪水事件最直接驱动因素。以TRMM/PR月累积降水反演遥感数据为基础,利用经验正交函数EOF（Empirical Orthogonal Function）方法对长江流域降水时空变化模式进行提取,并对比分析了主要模式振幅强弱与极端水文事件的对应关系。结果表明在流域尺度上EOF方法及TRMM/PR数据可以较好地识别降水主要模式,通过时空尺度变换成功揭示主要降水模式强弱与流域极端水文事件的对应关系。鉴于日益丰富的巨量水文气象时空数据,EOF方法在模式提取、水文模拟、极端事件预估及灾害适应性研究等方面具有应用潜力     

Pattern recognition and classification of sediments according to their metal content using chemometric tools. A case study: the estuary of Nerbioi-Ibaizabal River (Bilbao, Basque Country)

Chemometrics are increasingly used in environmental monitoring studies, but are still far from being accepted as routine tools by field specialists. The multivariate character of usually highly correlated environmental data recommends the use of advanced chemometrics as part of the analytical methodology in order to get information on the basic structure of data. In this work, we have applied a battery of non-supervised (Principal Component Analysis (PCA)) and supervised (k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN), Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogies (SIMCA), Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs)) multivariate techniques on a specific environmental dataset. The dataset consists on the concentration of 14 elements (Al, As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, V and Zn) in 95 sediments collected at eight different locations of the estuary of the Nerbioi-Ibaizabal River (Bilbao, Basque Country) during 12 sampling campaigns conducted every 3 months between 2005 and 2008. The study aims to present a simple methodology of general applicability which may result in a flexible and practical tool to assess chemical pollution in sediments of a given specific site.     

基于模糊综合识别技术的粉尘危害评价应用研究

针对目前粉尘危害评价存在的不足,采用最优权法确定各评价指标的权系数,利用模糊识别技术对粉尘危害程度进行综合评价,初步建立了粉尘危害评价指标体系和评价分级标准.结合某矿山实例,对粉尘危害进行模糊综合评价.评价结果表明,模糊综合识别技术能够较好反应实际情况,是一种有效的评价方法,对粉尘防治工作具有一定的指导意义.     

When to be neighbourly: differential agonistic responses in the lizard Platysaurus broadleyi

Differential treatment of neighbours and strangers (the dear enemy phenomenon) can reduce the costly effects of territory defence. Individual recognition, and by extension the dear enemy phenomenon, was examined in the cordylid lizard Platysaurus broadleyi. I had no knowledge of familiarity between individuals and therefore classed intruders as neighbours or non-neighbours and tested for differences in agonistic response consistent with the dear enemy phenomenon. In the dear enemy phenomenon, levels of aggression are inversely related to degree of familiarity such that residents are more tolerant of immediate neighbours than distant territory holders. A manipulative field experiment in conjunction with field observations of known territory holders revealed that resident males allowed neighbours to approach more closely than non-neighbours before challenging them, residents were more aggressive towards non-neighbours than neighbours, contests between neighbours were significantly longer than between neighbours and non-neighbours and contests between residents and non-neighbours were likely to result in a win for the resident, while neighbours frequently drew contests. These results suggest a level of recognition consistent with the dear enemy phenomenon. I also manipulated front leg colour to test the hypothesis that it alone could serve as a cue for individual recognition. I found no support for this hypothesis and suggest that multiple cues operate in individual recognition. Received: 4 March 1999 / Received in revised form: 11 April 1999 / Accepted: 19 April 1999     

模糊集重心理论在隧道瓦斯突出评价中的应用

以隧道瓦斯突出评价为研究对象。选取地质构造、煤层厚度、隧道埋深、瓦斯含量、瓦斯压力、瓦斯放散初速度和煤的坚固性系数作为指标,建立隧道瓦斯突出评价标准;用关联函数确定指标权重;结合模糊集重心理论与最短距离识别准则,构建属性识别模型,对隧道瓦斯突出进行评价。评价结果与可拓评价结果一致,从而验证了该方法的实用性。研究表明,基于模糊集重心理论的属性识别模型用于隧道瓦斯突出评价是可行的,为隧道瓦斯突出评价提供了一种新方法。     

上海浦东河渠中藻类群落污染生态的模式识别

为了研究藻类群落与环境变化的关系,采用模式识别方法分析浦东藻类群落数据及它们的生境。R－DPCA程序（含Wisconsin双重标准化处理）将结果投影至二维平面上,取样集合间有足够的生态距离。原始信息损失低于10～26％。整合物种和群落的排序结果：群落变异轴正是含氮化合物降解的方向（NBOD→NH₃→N→NO₃－N）。藻类中窝形席藻、鱼鳞藻和卵形单鞭金藻的优势度变化是环境变异的反映。     

Diagnosis of sewer pipe defects on image recognition of multi-features and support vector machine in a southern Chinese city

An image-recognition-based diagnosis system of pipe defect types was established. 1043 practical pipe images were gathered by CCTV robot in a southern Chinese city. The overall accuracy of the system is 84% and the highest accuracy is 99.3%. The accuracy shows positive correlation to the number of training samples. Closed circuit television (CCTV) systems are widely used to inspect sewer pipe conditions. During the diagnosis process, the manual diagnosis of defects is time consuming, labor intensive and error prone. To assist inspectors in diagnosing sewer pipe defects on CCTV inspection images, this paper presents an image recognition algorithm that applies features extraction and machine learning approaches. An algorithm of image recognition techniques, including Hu invariant moment, texture features, lateral Fourier transform and Daubechies (DBn) wavelet transform, was used to describe the features of defects, and support vector machines were used to classify sewer pipe defects. According to the inspection results, seven defects were defined; the diagnostic system was applied to a sewer pipe system in a southern city of China, and 28,760 m of sewer pipes were inspected. The results revealed that the classification accuracies of the different defects ranged from 51.6% to 99.3%. The overall accuracy reached 84.1%. The diagnosing accuracy depended on the number of the training samples, and four fitting curves were applied to fit the data. According to this paper, the logarithmic fitting curve presents the highest coefficient of determination of 0.882, and more than 200 images need to be used for training samples to guarantee the accuracy higher than 85%.