Systemic Modeling of the Peace-Development Nexus

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the value proposition of promoting sustainability and peace in the world has become more imperative than ever. It is an appropriate time to pause and reflect on what a post-pandemic COVID-19 world will look like and what constitutes a new mindset toward a more sustainable, stable, peaceful, and equitable world where all humans live with dignity and at peace. As emphasized in this paper, the new mindset must acknowledge that sustainability and peace are two entangled states of dynamic equilibrium. It is hard to envision a sustainable world that is not peaceful and a peaceful world that has not endorsed sustainable practices. This paper looks more specifically at the value proposition of adopting a systems approach to capture the linkages between selected development sectors (e.g., SDGs) and peace sectors (e.g., positive, negative, and cultural). Basic system dynamics (SD) models are presented to illustrate the peace&ndash;development nexus dynamics. The models are general enough to be used for different contexts and scales. &nbsp;</p

DNA cleavage and binding selectivity of a heterodinuclear Pt–Cu(3-Clip-Phen) complex

The synthesis and nuclease activity of a new bifunctional heterodinuclear platinum–copper complex are reported. The design of this ditopic coordination compound is based on the specific mode of action of each component, namely, cisplatin and Cu(3-Clip-Phen), where 3-Clip-Phen is 1-(1,10-phenanthrolin-3-yloxy)-3-(1,10-phenanthrolin-8-yloxy)propan-2-amine. Cisplatin is not only able to direct the Cu(3-Clip-Phen) part to the GG or AG site, but also acts as a kinetically inert DNA anchor. The nuclease activity of this complex has been investigated on supercoiled DNA. The dinuclear compound is not only more active than Cu(3-Clip-Phen), but is also capable of inducing direct double-strand breaks. The sequence selectivity of the mononuclear platinum complex has been investigated by primer extension experiments, which reveal that its interaction with DNA occurs at the same sites as for cisplatin. The Taq polymerase recognizes the resulting DNA damage as different from that for unmodified cisplatin. The sequence-selective cleavage has been investigated by high-resolution gel electrophoresis on a 36-bp DNA fragment. Sequence-selective cleavages are observed in the close proximity of the platinum sites for the strand exhibiting the preferential platinum binding sites. The platinum moiety also coordinates to the other DNA strand, most likely leading only to mono guanine or adenine adducts

Técnicas de ultrasonido : Una herramienta potencial para la ingeniería de tejidos

El objetivo de este trabajo es desarrollar dos montajes experimentales para la evaluación de las propiedades acústicas de hidrogeles de colágeno y para estudiar su correlación con las propiedades mecánicas. El primero permite estimar la velocidad del sonido, atenuación e impedancia acústica de las muestras manejando la temperatura. En el segundo, la configuración anterior se combina con un ensayo mecánico de compresión, lo que permite interrogar al mismo tiempo, tanto propiedades acústicas como mecánicas de la muestra. Se observan las propiedades acústicas y mecánicas de los geles de colágeno preparados de acuerdo a diferentes condiciones experimentales: pH y la concentración de colágeno. La variación de estos parámetros permite modificar las condiciones mecánicas de la matriz.Facultad de Ingenierí

Fit between humanitarian professionals and project requirements: hybrid group decision procedure to reduce uncertainty in decision-making

Choosing the right professional that has to meet indeterminate requirements is a critical aspect in humanitarian development and implementation projects. This paper proposes a hybrid evaluation methodology for some non-governmental organizations enabling them to select the most competent expert who can properly and adequately develop and implement humanitarian projects. This methodology accommodates various stakeholders’ perspectives in satisfying the unique requirements of humanitarian projects that are capable of handling a range of uncertain issues from both stakeholders and project requirements. The criteria weights are calculated using a two-step multi-criteria decision-making method: (1) Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process for the evaluation of the decision maker weights coupled with (2) Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to rank the alternatives which provide the ability to take into account both quantitative and qualitative evaluations. Sensitivity analysis have been developed and discussed by means of a real case of expert selection problem for a non-profit organisation. The results show that the approach allows a decrease in the uncertainty associated with decision-making, which proves that the approach provides robust solutions in terms of sensitivity analysis

The Role of Engineers in Poverty Reduction: Challenges and Opportunities

Dr. Bernard Amadei, founder, Engineers Without Borders – USA, director, Engineering for Developing Communities Program, and professor, University of Colorado presented a lecture on Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in the Ferst Center for the ArtsIn the next two decades, almost two billion additional people are expected to populate the Earth, ninety-five percent of them in developing or underdeveloped countries. This growth will create unprecedented demands for energy, food, land, water, transportation, materials, waste disposal, earth moving, health care, environmental cleanup, telecommunications, and infrastructure. The role of engineers will be critical in fulfilling those demands at various scales, ranging from remote small communities to large urban areas, mostly in the developing world. As we enter the first half of the 21st century, the engineering profession must embrace a new mission statement—to contribute to the building of a more sustainable, stable, and equitable world. In particular, we need to train a new generation of engineers who can better meet the challenges of the developing world and address the needs of the most destitute people on our planet. Today, an estimated twenty percent of the world’s population lacks clean water, forty percent lacks adequate sanitation, and twenty percent lacks adequate housing. This lecture will present the challenges and opportunities associated with practicing engineering in the developing world and the education of engineers through organizations such as Engineers Without Borders. The lecture will also discuss the importance of integrating engineering with nonengineering disciplines when addressing the needs of developing communities

Systemic Modeling of the Peace–Development Nexus

As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the value proposition of promoting sustainability and peace in the world has become more imperative than ever. It is an appropriate time to pause and reflect on what a post-pandemic COVID-19 world will look like and what constitutes a new mindset toward a more sustainable, stable, peaceful, and equitable world where all humans live with dignity and at peace. As emphasized in this paper, the new mindset must acknowledge that sustainability and peace are two entangled states of dynamic equilibrium. It is hard to envision a sustainable world that is not peaceful and a peaceful world that has not endorsed sustainable practices. This paper looks more specifically at the value proposition of adopting a systems approach to capture the linkages between selected development sectors (e.g., SDGs) and peace sectors (e.g., positive, negative, and cultural). Basic system dynamics (SD) models are presented to illustrate the peace–development nexus dynamics. The models are general enough to be used for different contexts and scales

VIDEO: Session 5: Energy Justice and Sustainable Development (continued)

VIDEO (7:34): Practical Solutions, Session 5: Energy Justice & Sustainable Development (continued) Speaker: Dr. Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder; Founding President, Engineers Without Borders – USA and Co-Founder, Engineers Without Borders – Internationa

A Systems Approach to Building Community Capacity and Resilience

Capacity and resilience are two closely aligned concepts in human development. They both contribute to increasing the ability of societies to cope with and adapt to challenging and adverse perturbations that may affect systems the societies depend upon. A traditional approach to building capacity and resilience at the community scale is to address in a fragmented manner specific issues at play in institutional, socio-economic, environmental, and infrastructure systems that may prevent the delivery of adequate community services and meeting development goals. This compartmentalized approach, driven by a need to reach some form of satisfactory community equilibrium, fails to recognize the interactions and interconnectedness that exist among community systems, which, if addressed, could solve multiple issues more effectively. It also does not account for the complex, adaptive, and dynamic nature of communities. A resilient community is more than just a collection of well-functioning silos. This paper proposes a system dynamics approach to account for the dynamic and adaptive nature of communities when developing capacity-building strategies toward strengthening their ability to deliver services and deal with adverse events. A case study of small-scale community capacity assessment around the service of wastewater and sewage treatment published elsewhere is presented to illustrate the proposed approach