Growth is Failing the Poor: The Unbalanced Distribution of the Benefits and Costs of Global Economic Growth

During 1990-2001, only 0.6 per cent of additional global income per capita contributed to reducing poverty below the $1-a-day line, down from 2.2 per cent during 1981-1990, and barely half the poor’s share of global income. Coupled with the constraints on global growth associated with climate change, and the disproportionately adverse net impact of climate change on the poor, this casts serious doubt on the dominant view that global growth should be the primary means of poverty reduction. Rather than growth, policies and the global economic system should focus directly on achieving social and environmental objectives.Economic growth, income distribution, world inequality, poverty, environment, climate change

Assessment of Coating Performance on Waterwalls and Superheaters in a Pulverised Fuel-Fired Power Station

Protective coatings offer one route to increase the lives of heat exchangers in pulverised fuel power plants. A range of candidate coatings have been exposed on the waterwall and superheaters of a 500 MWe UK power station unit for periods of up to ~4 years (24,880 operating hours), during which time this unit was fired on a mixture of UK and world-traded coals. Both nickel- and iron-based candidate coatings were included, applied using high velocity oxy-fuel or arc-wire process; a selection of these also had a surface sealant applied to investigate its effectiveness. Dimensional metrology was used to evaluate coating performances, with SEM/EDX examinations used to investigate the various degradation mechanisms found. Both the waterwall and superheater environments generated their characteristic corrosion damage morphologies which depended on the radial positions around the tube. Coating performances were found to depend on the initial coating quality rather than composition, and were not improved by the use of a sealant

Subterranean glacial spillways: an example from the karst of South Wales, UK

Many karst areas in the UK have been glaciated one or more times during the last 0.5 Ma, yet there are few documented examples of caves in these regions being affected by glacial processes other than erosion. The karst of South Wales is one area where sub or pro-glacial modification of pre-existing caves is thought to occur. Evidence from the Ogof Draenen cave system suggests that caves can sometimes act as subterranean glacial ‘underspill’ channels for melt-water. This cave, one of the longest in Britain with a surveyed length of over 70 km, underlies the interfluve between two glaciated valleys. Sediment fills and speleo-morphological observations indicate that melt-water from a high level glacier in the Afon Lwyd valley (>340m asl) filled part of the cave and over-spilled into the neighbouring Usk valley, temporarily reversing non-glacial groundwater flow directions in the cave. It is suggested that this may have occurred during a Middle Pleistocene glaciation

Towards a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty

A new approach is needed to tackle the climate crisis, in which the long overlooked supply-side of fossil fuels takes centre stage. A crucial aspect of this is the need for international agreements and law to effectively and fairly leave large swathes of remaining fossil fuels in the ground. Towards that end, we make the case for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (FF-NPT) to deal with emissions at source. Having explained the need for such a treaty, we propose overall aims, and both a process and principles for the sequencing of efforts across fuel types and regions based on equity and justice. We discuss the form an FF-NPT could take, as well as some of the key challenges it would have to overcome. We suggest strategies for overcoming key challenges in relation to reserves in developing countries, questions of the just transition, and incentives for countries to sign up to such a treaty

How Did We Do That? The Possibility of Rapid Transition

This booklet draws on the Transformations event series organised by the New Weather Institute and STEPS during 2016 and 2017, and was launched in April 2017 in Brighton.Is rapid transition possible? Sometimes events or new knowledge throw up reasons why we must make change happen quickly. At the present moment, climate change and chronic social inequality seem to demand radical change – but what kind of changes will work, and how can they be achieved? This booklet collects stories of rapid transitions and different kinds of transformations to show what we can learn from history and the present day about how people adapt to rapid change. The booklet draws on the Transformations event series organised by the New Weather Institute and STEPS during 2016 and 2017.ESR

Urethral Defect in Setting of Recurrent Urethral Foreign Body Insertion.

We present a case of recurrent episodes of foreign body insertion into the urethra, ultimately resulting in urethral defect at the penoscrotal junction. We have decided against treating the urethral defect as it facilitates nonoperative retrieval of the urethral foreign bodies. We present our experience and rationale for the clinical management of this complex patient

Smoking cessation counselling training in the pre-clerkship curriculum of Canadian medical schools: A national survey

Background: Cigarette use is Canada’s leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death. The Medical Council of Canada requires that physicians be able to address tobacco-use, however smoking cessation counselling (SCC) training remains largely neglected in the pre-clerkship curricula of many Canadian medical schools.Methods: Between July and October of 2015, Canada’s 17 medical schools were invited to participate in an administrative survey: The Canadian Medical School Assessment of Smoking Cessation Counselling in the Pre-Clerkship Curriculum. Each was asked to comment on the presence of 28 tobacco-related topics in their curricula, including: time devoted to source material; year(s) of training during which medical students were exposed to related content; methods of teaching and examination; and, the attitudes, policies, and barriers relevant to the presence of smoking cessation counselling (SCC) training in the curriculum.A second short survey: Assessing Medical Students Attitudes toward Smoking Cessation Education was distributed to 100 University of Ottawa medical students to assess comfort level and perceived confidence toward addressing smoking cessation with patients.Results: Eleven of 17 medical schools completed the administrative survey. The results demonstrated substantial deficits and inconsistencies in the delivery of SCC training in the pre-clerkship curricula of Canada’s medical schools.  The short survey revealed perceived discomfort regarding smoking cessation discussion, consistent with the potential curriculum deficits suggested in the larger national survey.Conclusion: The results of both surveys suggest an unfortunate oversight given the devastating impact of tobacco-related diseases. Institutional commitment and enhanced inter-university collaboration could facilitate the development of a national undergraduate medical education program to enhance the delivery of SCC training within the pre-clerkship curricula of Canadian medical schools

How useful are osteoarchaeological methods in supporting current interpretations for violent death? A review of the data from Iron Age burial contexts in England

A picture of the violent 'headhunting' Celtic peoples of Britain was painted by Roman historians and writers thousands of years ago. Even to this day, it is an image that has likely, though perhaps inadvertently, affected the interpretations of many incidents of skeletal trauma. This paper looks at a number of these narratives from a range of different burial contexts from the Iron Age in England. The secondary osteoarchaeological data from these sites was reviewed to understand the extent to which these interpretations can be scientifically supported. Results demonstrate that the study of the skeletal trauma was often unable to provide tangible support to most interpretations and raised some key issues with the limitations of the current techniques

Reading and Wirelessly Sending EEG Signals Using Arduinos and XBee Radios to Control a Robot

The objective of this project is to develop an EEG device that can read brainwaves from an individual, analyze the data, and use the result to send a wireless signal using Arduinos and XBee Radios to a Boe-bot to perform an action. One of the goals of this project is to read EEG data with a higher sampling frequency than a previously manufactured EEG device. The second part of the project used the device developed to differentiate an individual’s thinking between right and left and then send a simple signal to a robot using an XBee radio to perform an action, such as making a motor turn. The implementation of this project contained three parts. The first part of the project involved making the EEG Data readable by the Arduino by amplifying the signal using instrumentational amplifiers and operational amplifiers as well as a notch filter and a low-pass filter to make the data readable. The second part consisted of interpreting the data that was being received from the EEG probe by filtering it a third time using a band-pass filter from 1 to 31 kHz and plotting it in MATLAB. The software components were data reading, transmission, reception, and processing of the information from the source device to the destination device. The last part of the project was programming the software component of the Arduino such that the wireless devices were able to communicate the EEG information. Furthermore, the application of this wireless network is far-reaching. Its practical uses cover a wide spectrum, from giving feedback to individuals based on their brainwaves, helping them improve their skilled performance in a game such as golf or archery, to increasing access for those with disabilities to allow individuals to interface with a gaming system using only their brainwaves