Achieving urban climate adaptation in Europe and Central Asia

Many cities across Europe and Central Asia are experiencing the impacts of climate change, but most have not integrated climate adaptation into their agendas. This paper examines the threats faced and measures that can be taken by cities in the region to protect buildings, heritage sites, municipal functions, and vulnerable urban populations. In general, local governments must be proactive in ensuring that existing buildings are climate ready, paying particular attention to emerging technologies for retrofitting the prefabricated, panel style buildings that dominate the landscape while assessing the viability of homes situated in flood plains, coastal areas, and steep slopes. They also must ensure that new developments and buildings are designed in ways that account for climatic fluctuations. Although the resilience of all populations needs to be considered, historical patterns of discrimination require that special provisions are made for the poor and for ethnic minorities such as the Roma because these groups will be most at risk, but are least likely to have access to adequate resources. Urban climate adaptation requires national-level support and local commitment. However, centralized planning and expert-led decision-making under the former regimes may affect the ability of cities to pursue programmatic approaches to adaptation. Therefore, while national governments need to make adaptation a policy priority and ensure that municipalities have adequate resources, local government agencies and departments must be transparent in their actions and introduce participatory and community-based measures that demonstrate respect for diverse stakeholders and perspectives.Wetlands,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies,Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Economics

Anti-fog composition

An anti-fog composition is described for the prevention of fogging on surfaces such as space helmet visors, spacecraft windows, and windshields. It is composed of a surface active agent, water, and an oil time extender

Inexpensive anti-fog coating for windows

Coating applications include anti-fog protection for deep-sea diving equipment, fire protection helmets, and windows of vehicles used in hazardous environments. Basic coating composition includes liquid detergent, deionized water, and oxygen compatible fire-resistant oil. Composition prevents visor fogging under maximum metabolic load for 5 hours and longer

Preparing Cities for Climate Change: An International Comparative Assessment of Urban Adaptation Planning. Semi-Structured Interview Instrument

The research objective of this project is to conduct an international comparative assessment of urban adaptation planning. Cities throughout the world are experiencing chronic problems and extreme events that are being attributed climate change. Although there is a critical need for cities to protect their built, natural, and human environments, there is notable variability in the approaches they are taking. At one extreme, some cities are developing dedicated and integrated climate adaptation plans. At the other extreme are cities that have not established any plans or initiated any adaptation measures whatsoever. Drawing on theories of diffusion and capacity, and case study and survey methodologies, this comparative international research examines: (1) the types of plans for climate adaptation being adopted in cities; (2) factors associated with differences in the approaches urban municipalities are taking toward climate adaptation planning; and (3) the ways that the efforts of nongovernmental and community-based organizations complement, circumvent, and replace government adaptation initiatives. The results from this inquiry will expand our understanding of the forces and factors shaping decisions related to urban climate action. They also will deepen our knowledge of how civil society actors affect the capacity local governments. Disaster risk reduction is a critical component of climate adaptation planning. Therefore, as a consequence of studying adaptation, this research will enhance our understanding of the social and political dimensions of planning for natural disasters. To ensure that the policy-relevant results reach decision-makers in cities, the findings will be summarized in a report and disseminated to members of climate and local government networks. The research findings also will form the basis for case studies that can be used in graduate-level courses and will contribute to the development of a web tool designed to assist cities in their adaptation initiatives. In addition to generating policy and educational materials, graduate students will have opportunities to gain experience conducting research in international settings.Funded by National Science Foundation Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events Program grant #0926349. Endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme's (IHDP) core project on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC). Partnered with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

Women and non-cardiac chest pain: gender differences in symptom presentation.

A substantial number of individuals evaluated for complaints of chest pain do not suffer from coronary heart disease (CHD). Studies show that many patients who complain of symptoms that might be caused by CHD, such as shortness of breath or chest pain, may actually have an anxiety disorder. Gender differences in how patients present with these symptoms have not been adequately explored. The purpose of this study was to explore possible gender differences in the presentation of patients with CHD-like symptoms. Two groups were examined, one comprising 6,381 individuals self-referred for electron beam tomography (EBT) studies and a subset of these individuals who defined a low-risk group based on the absence of risk factors for CHD and low coronary artery calcium (CAC) scores. We explored gender differences in symptom presentation in each group after controlling for relevant variables by using logistic regression models. These analyses showed that women were significantly more likely than men to endorse CHD symptoms that might also be caused by an anxiety disorder. Women in the low risk group reported CHD symptoms also referable to anxiety more often than men, but unlike men did not complain primarily of chest pain. Women were also more likely to have been prescribed antianxiety or antidepressant medication. In previous studies, non-cardiac chest pain has been considered a hallmark of anxiety in individuals seen in medical settings. This study suggests that in individuals with low risk for CHD chest pain was not related to gender, but other anxiety-related symptoms including heart flutter, lightheadedness, nausea, and shortness of breath were more likely to be reported in women than in men

“Edutainment”: The Role of Mass Media in the Development of an Effective HIV/AIDS Youth Awareness Campaign in Viet Nam

Since the first reported case of HIV in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in the year 1990, more than 300,000 people have contracted the disease. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has made considerable progress since that time in disseminating information on HIV/AIDS to the public, utilizing various forms of media. Yet in the rudimentary stages of this national effort, a “social evils” campaign was launched by the government; an emphasis was placed on informing the public as to why individuals contract HIV/AIDS, and which negative individual behaviors, or “social evils,” influence the proliferation of the disease. As more of the population was exposed to the government’s mass media campaign to educate about HIV/AIDS, by means of television, radio, posters, and billboards, negative images of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PWHA) became permanently imprinted on the minds of a nation, and a misunderstanding of HIV/AIDS stimulated widespread fear and value driven stigmatization and discrimination of PWHA. Due to a combination of rapid globalization and the prevalence of traditional Confucian values entrenched in Vietnamese culture, it is often difficult for the younger generation to gain a more comprehensive knowledge. Because over half the population of Vietnam consists of individuals under the age of 25, it is crucial that this demographic be the principal target of awareness campaigns. Although young people in Vietnam today have a relatively high amount of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, they are becoming more sexually active and practicing unsafe sex, failing to utilize this knowledge. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and non-profit organizations need to coordinate to foster a consistent national dialogue involving PWHA, featuring a multi-dimensional media campaign

Capturing Burma : reactivating colonial photographic images through the British raj\u27s gaze

This thesis explores the marginally studied topic of Burmese photography from the colonial period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With a large emphasis on the oeuvres of the foreign photographers Felice Beato (1832 -- 1909), Philipp Adolphe Klier (1845 -- 1911), and D.A. Ahuja (? -- ?), this study analyzes how visual representations of Burma\u27s people were fabricated, mass-produced, and contextualized by foreign audiences to provide additional justification for the colonial mission. By combining Edward Said\u27s concept of orientalism with Laura Mulvey\u27s concept of the gaze, this study considers how the British empire looked upon and created a visual corpus of Burmese women and men as the Other . This study argues that the creation and treatment of Burma\u27s visual milieu was fully informed by an orientalizing gaze that simultaneously commodified and fetishized the native population. Further, this study applies Roland Barthes\u27s concept of the myth and his semiological system to analyze and contextualize contemporary use of colonial images in pop culture merchandise created by foreign-owned businesses established in Myanmar in recent years. Additionally, this study contributes new findings based on archival and art historical research that helps clarify and establish a clearer biographical timeline for the photographers studied

The growth of wheat seedlings in solutions containing monopotassium phosphate, calcium nitrate, and magnesium sulphate, singly and in pairs.

Soon after the atomic theory was established, it was found that the plant uses as sources of food not only the air and water, but also different constituents of the soil, dissolved in the soil moisture—the mineral nutrients. Ashes of different burned plants were analyzed; they were found to vary with the soil in which the plants were grown as well as with the species of the plant and the special organ from which the ashes were obtained. A great number of minerals was found in the ashes. The question arose soon, which of these elements is essential to the nutrition and growth of plants. Different experimental methods were evolved to solve this problem. It is possible to decide if any of the mineral nutrients is really essential to the plant only by growing the plant in an artificial medium, from which we are sure the element in question is absent. Soil extracts were used as artificial culture media; ash of plants dissolved in water was used as such. But the most satisfactory results were obtained by water cultures and pure sand cultures. Each one of the two last mentioned methods has its advantages and disadvantages. In sand cultures we are never sure that the sand itself does not contain any traces of soluble minerals, and it is hard to keep constantly the same moisture conditions in all cultures; but at the same time, sand cultures approach closer the natural physical conditions in the soil. Water cultures are much easier to prepare and to control; all plants are sure to be presented the same amount of the same nutritive solution, and there are no interactions between constituents of the nutritive solution and any inert matter. It was established by using different artificial media that the elements needed for the normal nutrition and growth of plants are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulphur, nitrogen, and iron. The plant gets its carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air and it obtains oxygen from the air. Oxygen and hydrogen, combined as water, are absorbed by the roots. Iron is needed only in later stages with the forming and functioning of the chlorophyll. All the other elements must be presented to the plant in the nutritive solution. Water culture nutritive solutions made up in different ways were used. In such water culture solutions it is possible to get fully grown plants, bearing normal seeds, and this fact was actually demonstrated many times with different plants. The earlier workers, as Knop, Sachs, Pfeffer, and the others, generally used water solutions made up with four, five, six, or even more salts. The procedure has been simplified in recent investigations, and now most nutritive solutions are made up of three main salts. Livingston (1919) has shown that there are six possible combinations of the elements necessary for normal plant growth that can be made in pairing them in three salts. The first possible combination is calcium nitrate, monopotassium phosphate, and magnesium sulphate. This is the one mostly used in contemporary experimentations, and these three salts were also used in the present work. The salt combinations mentioned above may be regarded as final and incapable of further simplification. The greatest amount of work done till now with water cultures has consisted in growing the plants in different nutritive solutions containing all the essential elements. But it must clearly be understood that the complete nutritive solution is itself a physiologically balanced solution, which contains different elements acting differently upon the plant and one upon the other. The action of a balanced solution is such that the toxic effects that each salt would exert, if it alone were present, is counteracted or antagonized by the other salts present in the solution. Simultaneously with the simplification of the composition of the nutritive solution, other improvements were being made. Among these refinements of technique has been (1) the use of purer salts and purer distilled water, (2) the testing a much greater number of plants so as to minimize the effects of variability, and (3) the controlling more strictly the different environmental conditions, in the nutritive solution itself as well as in the serial surroundings of the plants. The results obtained are of course of increasing value, and they show more and more the actual meaning of the matters investigated. It is believed that the time is ripe now to investigate into the fundamental properties of these nutritive solutions, to get at the finer details of the function of each one of their constituent salts. With this general aim in mind the present work was undertaken. Each one of the three salts constituting the nutritive solution was investigated separately, and its influence upon growth of tops and roots was studied. These three salts were then tried in different mixtures in pairs, and their influence was again investigated. The results obtained from these mixtures were finally compared with those obtained for the single salts. It is hoped that the present work will help us in obtaining a deeper insight into the function of water culture solutions, and will help in understanding better the nutritive requirements of the plant and the function of each one of these nutritive substances separately. It is also hoped that this work will serve as a sound basis for further investigations in the same direction

Impact of Transformational Leadership on Job Satisfaction Among Staff in Private Child Care Agencies

Leadership styles and behaviors can impact employees\u27 job performance and satisfaction. Murari and Mukherjee (2021), highlight that “building trust, clear vision, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, self-awareness, transparency, individualized consideration, wisdom and knowledge, and congruent values” (p. 3612); are the faces of transformational leadership. Positive or negative behaviors can significantly affect job performance and total job satisfaction. The behavior of leadership has a significant impact on the success of employees and organizations. Leadership behavior affects many organizations, such as schools, community organizations, governmental organizations, and private agencies. Creswell (2012) describes correlational design as a form of research that uses data analysis to measure the relationship between two or more variables. This study examined the correlation between Transformational Leadership behaviors and job satisfaction among private childcare and private child placing agencies in Kentucky. Quantitative and correlational designs were used to collect data from 48 employees across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) were used to collect the data. Findings from the data indicated that there is a positive correlation between transformational leadership and job satisfaction. Some of the data collected indicated that there needs to be consistent engagement in transformational leadership behaviors to keep employees feeling a sense of job satisfaction