Search

Climate change will mean cities are exposed to more frequent short‐term shocks such as floods. City‐scale resilience is achieved by understanding how these shocks interact with longer‐term stressors (e.g., social inequality). The Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy (USAH) has been developed for this purpose. In this paper, Glasgow (UK) is used as a case study application, to demonstrate how resilience theory can be operationalized through the application of the USAH. Results demonstrate how the USAH can quantify interdependencies between tangible physical entities in the city and intangible outcomes that monitor city stressors, and specifically how these outcomes change in response to a 1:200‐year fluvial flood return period in Glasgow. Resilience concepts such as multifunctionality, redundancy and diversity are applied to interpret the results and their implications for longer‐term resilience in Glasgow. The findings from the application of the USAH show that the outcome Social equality and equity is influential for longer‐term resilience in Glasgow, whilst Reliable communications and mobility is an important outcome for flood resilience. Plain Language Summary: Flood hazards are projected to increase under climate change. Understanding how flood exposure interacts with the urban environment is important for longer‐term resilience planning. A resilience tool called the Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy models how city resources (such as train stations, parks, hospitals) enable processes which aggregate over different scales to enable resilient outcomes (such as social equality). In this paper, the tool is applied to Glasgow (UK) and modified for a flood hazard. Interaction analysis reveals which urban processes, tasks and outcomes are impacted by a flood through the application of resilience concepts. Applying the tool to a case study provides a fresh perspective on how cities might respond to hazards, and enables an interdisciplinary framework for resilience planning. Key Points: A resilience tool is applied to capture functional interdependencies between system components in Glasgow across scalesResults show how these interdependencies change as a result of flood exposure, impacting longer‐term resilient outcomesA new perspective is provided for applying resilience theory in flood management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that urban systems issues are design problems on a grand scale and that various disciplines aiming to address them can have only a partial view of the problem. It is necessary to draw boundaries around the detailed analyses of specific issues, but a way to map the wider system, to contextualize and more deeply understand how they are interrelated, is still lacking. Four complexity obstacles related to reasoning about complex systems are in our way, and to our knowledge no existing approach navigates them effectively. We propose a tool called the Abstraction Hierarchy as a way to do just this, in order to frame complex issues on a large scale, in a way accessible to all disciplines. To demonstrate the power of this systems model, the Abstraction Hierarchy is applied to an urban area. Through its application we demonstrate its capability to navigate all four obstacles and investigate previously unexplored space in urban systems research. Plain Language Summary: One of the main barriers to combating climate change is unpicking the complexity of the problem and avoiding solutions that work in one way and create problems in another. This is because scientists sometimes fail to acknowledge we are human beings, and human beings reason about complex problems in a certain way. The discipline of human factors is centered on this fact and offers a well‐tested design tool which follows the natural line of human reasoning. This tool—the Abstraction Hierarchy—could be applied in a new way, and at a much larger scale, to understand climate impacts on entire cities. Key Points: Systems thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration are needed, but the way humans reason about complex systems is often unacknowledgedThe Abstraction Hierarchy was developed to complement the natural line of human reasoning and overcome complexity "obstacles"The potential of this approach is demonstrated through an example Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores the ability of intracellular bacteria within the renal-inter-renal tissue of the winter skate Leucoraja ocellata to metabolize steroids and contribute to the synthesis of the novel elasmobranch corticosteroid, 1α-hydroxycorticosterone (1α- OH-B). Despite the rarity of C1 hydroxylation noted in the original identification of 1α- OH-B, literature provides evidence for steroid C1 hydroxylation by micro-organisms. Eight ureolytic bacterial isolates were identified in the renal-inter-renal tissue of L. ocellata, the latter being the site of 1α- OH-B synthesis. From incubations of bacterial isolates with known amounts of potential 1α- OH-B precursors, one isolate UM008 of the genus Rhodococcus was seen to metabolize corticosteroids and produce novel products via HPLC analysis. Cations Zn2+ and Fe3+ altered metabolism of certain steroid precursors, suggesting inhibition of Rhodococcus steroid catabolism. Genome sequencing of UM008 identified strong sequence and structural homology to that of Rhodococcus erythropolis PR4. A complete enzymatic pathway for steroid-ring oxidation as documented within other Actinobacteria was identified within the UM008 genome. This study highlights the potential role of Rhodococcus bacteria in steroid metabolism and proposes a novel alternative pathway for 1α- OH-B synthesis, suggesting a unique form of mutualism between intracellular bacteria and their elasmobranch host. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]