Search results for " defence"
showing 10 items of 415 documents
Supporting group decision makers to locate temporary relief distribution centres after sudden-onset disasters
2020
International audience; In the humanitarian response, multiple decision-makers (DMs) need to collaborate in various problems, such as locating temporary relief distribution centres (RDCs). Several studies have argued that maximising demand coverage, reducing logistics costs and minimising response time are among the critical objectives when locating RDCs after a sudden-onset disaster. However, these objectives are often conflicting and the trade-offs can considerably complicate the situation for finding a consensus.To address the challenge and support the DMs, we suggest investigating the stability of non-dominated alternatives derived from a multi-objective model based on Monte Carlo Simul…
Driving through floodwater: Exploring driver decisions through the lived experience
2019
Abstract More than half of unintentional flood-related drowning deaths in Australia are due to driving through floodwater, despite on-going public campaigns. Currently, there is a knowledge gap in understanding why individuals choose to drive through floodwater and the decisions that may lead to such actions. We propose that a more complete understanding of individuals’ decisions to drive through floodwater needs to be considered in the context of the lived experience. Australian drivers (N = 20) who had intentionally driven through floodwater participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis based in an interpretivist approach. Past experience, indivi…
Search without rescue? Evaluating the international search and rescue response to earthquake disasters
2020
Earthquakes around the world are unnecessarily lethal and destructive, adversely affecting the health and well-being of affected populations. Most immediate deaths and injuries are caused by building collapse, making search and rescue (SAR) an early priority. In this review, we assess the SAR response to earthquake disasters. First, we review the evidence for the majority of individuals being rescued locally, often by relatives and neighbours. We then summarise evidence for successful live rescues by international SAR (ISAR) teams, along with the costs, ethics and other considerations of deployment. Finally, we propose an alternative approach to postdisaster ISAR, with the goal of reducing …
Volatile-mediated foraging behaviour of three parasitoid species under conditions of dual insect herbivore attack
2016
Infochemicals play an important role in structuring intra-and interspecific interactions. Many parasitoid wasp species rely on herbivory or oviposition-induced plant volatiles (HIPVs/OIPVs) to locate their herbivorous hosts, and must cope with variation in the volatile blends due to factors such as plant/host species, herbivore density or attack by several herbivores. However, little is known about how dual herbivory or changes in herbivore density affect multiple parasitoid species, each attacking a different herbivore, in the same system. In a natural system, we investigated the effect of dual attack on the ability of three parasitoid species to differentiate between volatiles induced by …
Towards European Dimensions of City Resilience
2016
International audience; Disaster resilience is becoming more important and raises the highest concerns worldwide, including in Europe. Cities have a vital role for resilience because a majority of the population resides in the cities. Despite the recognition of the importance of city resilience, there is no strong consensus what city resilience is and its dimensions, and how the resilience concept should be transferred into management practice in the cities. In this paper, we conduct a survey of EU sectorial approaches in terms of EU-funded projects related to climate change and critical infrastructure, where urban or city resilience are in focus. The goal is to obtain an overview of how th…
How to fight multiple enemies : target-specific chemical defences in an aposematic moth
2017
Animals have evolved different defensive strategies to survive predation, among which chemical defences are particularly widespread and diverse. Here we investigate the function of chemical defence diversity, hypothesizing that such diversity has evolved as a response to multiple enemies. The aposematic wood tiger moth (Arctia plantaginis) displays conspicuous hindwing coloration and secretes distinct defensive fluids from its thoracic glands and abdomen. We presented the two defensive fluids from laboratory-reared moths to two biologically relevant predators, birds and ants, and measured their reaction in controlled bioassays (no information on colour was provided). We found that defensive…
Investment in multiple defences protects a nematode-bacterium symbiosis from predation
2017
The act of predation often comprises multiple sequential steps whereby prey can employ defences at all or some of these stages to deter predation. However, investment in defences is costly unless they are outweighed by conferring some benefit to the bearer. One system that employs multiple defences is that of the entomopathogenic nematode Heterorhabditis bacteriophora and its symbiotic bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens. This nematodeebacterium complex infects and kills soil-dwelling insect larvae, in which they then reproduce and juveniles emerge 2 weeks later. Predation of the infected host cadaver at any point during infection is fatal for the parasitic colony inside. Infected individual…
Ecological conditions alter cooperative behaviour and its costs in a chemically defended sawfly
2018
The evolution of cooperation and social behaviour is often studied in isolation from the ecology of organisms. Yet, the selective environment under which individuals evolve is much more complex in nature, consisting of ecological and abiotic interactions in addition to social ones. Here, we measured the life-history costs of cooperative chemical defence in a gregarious social herbivore, Diprion pini pine sawfly larvae, and how these costs vary under different ecological conditions. We ran a rearing experiment where we manipulated diet (resin content) and attack intensity by repeatedly harassing larvae to produce a chemical defence. We show that forcing individuals to allocate more to coope…
Parameterising a public good: how experiments on predation can be used to predict cheat frequencies
2016
Chemical defence is superficially easy to understand as a means for individuals to protect themselves from enemies. The evolution of chemical defence is however potentially complex because such defences may cause the generation of a public good, protecting members of the population as a whole as well as individuals that deploy toxins defensively. If a public good of protection exists, it may be exploited and degraded by “cheats” that do not invest in defence. This can in turn lead to complex frequency (and density) dependent effects in toxin evolution. To investigate this we used ecologically relevant predators (Great tits, Parus major) and examined how individual and public benefits vary d…
Mechanisms of Defence to Pathogens : Biochemistry and Physiology
2014
SPE IPM; International audience; Plant defences comprise both pre-existing barriers as well as defences induced upon perception of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) or microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) or molecules produced from damage as a result of infection (damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)). This chapter focuses on the induced mechanisms of defence. The inducibility of phytoalexin biosynthesis has probably been favoured in the course of evolution by biological constraints such as metabolic costs and functional side-effects associated with chemical defence. Historically, the term ‘hypersensitive’ refers to the rapid and localized cell death induced in…