title: Why using the level of the active component in manuka honey to replace the UMF rating is misleading

authors: Molan, Peter C.

subjects: biology

abstract: There have been some news releases claiming that Professor Henle in Germany has found the chemical identity of UMF, and that in future chemical analysis will be used instead of assays of antibacterial activity to indicate the level of UMF in manuka honey. Both of these claims are misleading. Because the level of active substance in manuka honey is an unreliable indication of the level of antibacterial activity and can be very misleading, it is hard to see any commercial advantage for it to be used to indicate antibacterial activity other than if someone wanted to fool the consumer into thinking that the higher numbers are giving them a level of antibacterial activity that is far higher than they are really getting.

text: Why using the level of the active component in manuka honey to replace the UMF rating is misleading There have been some news releases claiming that Professor Henle in Germany has found the chemical identity of UMF, and that in future chemical analysis will be used instead of assays of antibacterial activity to indicate the level of UMF in manuka honey. Both of these claims are misleading. Because the level of active substance in manuka honey is an unreliable indication of the level of antibacterial activity and can be very misleading, it is hard to see any commercial advantage for it to be used to indicate antibacterial activity other than if someone wanted to fool the consumer into thinking that the higher numbers are giving them a level of antibacterial activity that is far higher than they are really getting.

year: 2008

title: Climate change increased extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding highly vulnerable communities in Pakistan

authors: Otto, Friederike E. L.

abstract: As a direct consequence of extreme monsoon rainfall throughout the summer 2022 season Pakistan experienced the worst flooding in its history. We employ a probabilistic event attribution methodology as well as a detailed assessment of the dynamics to understand the role of climate change in this event. Many of the available state-of-the-art climate models struggle to simulate these rainfall characteristics. Those that pass our evaluation test generally show a much smaller change in likelihood and intensity of extreme rainfall than the trend we found in the observations. This discrepancy suggests that long-term variability, or processes that our evaluation may not capture, can play an important role, rendering it infeasible to quantify the overall role of human-induced climate change. However, the majority of models and observations we have analysed show that intense rainfall has become heavier as Pakistan has warmed. Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50%. The devastating impacts were also driven by the proximity of human settlements, infrastructure (homes, buildings, bridges), and agricultural land to flood plains, inadequate infrastructure, limited ex-ante risk reduction capacity, an outdated river management system, underlying vulnerabilities driven by high poverty rates and socioeconomic factors (e.g. gender, age, income, and education), and ongoing political and economic instability. Both current conditions and the potential further increase in extreme peaks in rainfall over Pakistan in light of anthropogenic climate change, highlight the urgent need to reduce vulnerability to extreme weather in Pakistan.

text: Climate change increased extreme monsoon rainfall, flooding highly vulnerable communities in Pakistan As a direct consequence of extreme monsoon rainfall throughout the summer 2022 season Pakistan experienced the worst flooding in its history. We employ a probabilistic event attribution methodology as well as a detailed assessment of the dynamics to understand the role of climate change in this event. Many of the available state-of-the-art climate models struggle to simulate these rainfall characteristics. Those that pass our evaluation test generally show a much smaller change in likelihood and intensity of extreme rainfall than the trend we found in the observations. This discrepancy suggests that long-term variability, or processes that our evaluation may not capture, can play an important role, rendering it infeasible to quantify the overall role of human-induced climate change. However, the majority of models and observations we have analysed show that intense rainfall has become heavier as Pakistan has warmed. Some of these models suggest climate change could have increased the rainfall intensity up to 50%. The devastating impacts were also driven by the proximity of human settlements, infrastructure (homes, buildings, bridges), and agricultural land to flood plains, inadequate infrastructure, limited ex-ante risk reduction capacity, an outdated river management system, underlying vulnerabilities driven by high poverty rates and socioeconomic factors (e.g. gender, age, income, and education), and ongoing political and economic instability. Both current conditions and the potential further increase in extreme peaks in rainfall over Pakistan in light of anthropogenic climate change, highlight the urgent need to reduce vulnerability to extreme weather in Pakistan.

year: 2023-06-01

title: Participatory design in Māori cultural contexts

authors: Bowen, Judy

subjects: computer science

abstract: The Hakituri project aims to develop practical and ethical wearable monitoring solutions for workers in hazardous industries. We identified specific challenges pertinent to our participatory design process for this project which relate to the indigenous participants, cultural expectations and data sovereignty. As we developed the ideas for our design process, further challenges became evident. In this paper we explore the challenges that unfolded and describe how we began to mitigate them and develop ideas for similar future challenges.

text: Participatory design in Māori cultural contexts The Hakituri project aims to develop practical and ethical wearable monitoring solutions for workers in hazardous industries. We identified specific challenges pertinent to our participatory design process for this project which relate to the indigenous participants, cultural expectations and data sovereignty. As we developed the ideas for our design process, further challenges became evident. In this paper we explore the challenges that unfolded and describe how we began to mitigate them and develop ideas for similar future challenges.

year: 2020