Improving technology transfer through national systems of innovation: climate relevant innovation-system builders (CRIBs)

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently convened a workshop seeking to understand how strengthening national systems of innovation (NSIs) might help to foster the transfer of climate technologies to developing countries. This article reviews insights from the literatures on Innovation Studies and Socio-Technical Transitions to demonstrate why this focus on fostering innovation systems has potential to be more transformative as an international policy mechanism for climate technology transfer than anything the UNFCCC has considered to date. Based on insights from empirical research, the article also articulates how the existing architecture of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism could be usefully extended by supporting the establishment of CRIBs (climate relevant innovation-system builders) in developing countries – key institutions focused on nurturing the climate-relevant innovation systems and building technological capabilities that form the bedrock of transformative, climate-compatible technological change and development

Parenting Programmes for preventing tobacco, alcohol or drugs misuse in children under 18 : a systematic review

This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Health Education Research following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version [Petrie, J. ,Bunn, F. and Byrne, G. (2007) 'Parenting Programmes for preventing tobacco, alcohol or drug abuse in children under 18:a systematic review'. Health Education Research 22 (2) pp.177-191] is available online at: http://her.oxfordjournals.org/archive/index.dtl --Copyright Oxford University PressWe conducted a systematic review of controlled studies of parenting programmes to prevent tobacco, alcohol or drug abuse in children under 18. We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, specialised Register of Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group, Pub Med, psych INFO, CINALH, and SIGLE. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data and assessed study quality. Data were collected on actual or intended use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs by child, and associated risk or antecedent behaviours. Due to heterogeneity we did not pool studies in a meta-analysis and instead present a narrative summary of the findings. Twenty studies met our inclusion criteria. Statistically significant self-reported reductions of alcohol use were found in six of 14 studies, of drugs in five of nine studies and tobacco in nine out of 13 studies. Three interventions reported increases of tobacco, drug and alcohol use. We concluded that parenting programmes can be effective in reducing or preventing substance use. The most effective appeared to be those that shared an emphasis on active parental involvement and on developing skills in social competence, self-regulation and parenting. However, more work is needed to investigate further the change processes involved in such interventions and their long-term effectivenessPeer reviewe

Law Reform in Estonia: The Role of Georgetown University Law Center

On June 19, 1992, we and seven other members of the Georgetown University Law Center community landed in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, to help the Estonian government draft laws to support a market economy. Our group consisted of six students, two professors, and an alumnus. The country to which we had come had declared its independence from the Soviet Union less than one year before. After fifty years of imposed communism, the Estonian leaders wanted to understand and adopt the basic foundations for a Western legal system that would support democratic and market institutions

Pharmacological treatment of behavioural problems in dementia

Dementia is commonly associated with distressing behavioural problems that warrant intervention. A general medical assessment of the patient is needed before assessing whether specific treatment is required. Both non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions can be considered. The best available evidence is for the use of low-dose antipsychotic medication in patients with agitated or aggressive behaviour with or without associated psychotic symptoms. There is less evidence to support the use of antidepressants, anticonvulsants and cholinesterase inhibitors in patients whose dementia is complicated by behavioural problems. When psychotropic medication is prescribed to people with dementia, it should be regularly reviewed with a view to stopping it or assessing the patient after a trial off the medication

The Current Status of Nondestructive Testing with Positron Annihilation

The existence of the positron was verified more than 40 years ago by Anderson but only in the 1950\u27s was much attention given to its usefulness in terms of understanding the electronic structure of solids. As more workers became involved in the 1950\u27s and 1960\u27s work began to appear on metals, gasses and insulators and it was realized that positrons were sensitive to lattice defects. This realization has caused a new burst of interest in experimental and theoretical work using the positron as a probe for defects. Advantages of the positron technique are that it is nondestructive, very fast (106 counts in about 10 minutes), and highly sensitive to very low defect concentrations

A note on heat and mass transfer from a sphere in Stokes\ud flow at low Péclet number

We consider the low Péclet number, Pe ≪ 1, asymptotic solution for steady-state heat and mass transfer from a sphere immersed in Stokes flow with a Robin boundary condition on its surface, representing Newton cooling or a first-order chemical reaction. The application of van Dyke’s rule up to terms of O(Pe3) shows that the O(Pe3 log Pe) terms in the expression for the average Nusselt/Sherwood number are double those previously derived in the literature. Inclusion of the O(Pe3) terms is shown to increase significantly the range of validity of the expansion

The effectiveness of a low-cost soil moisture sensor for domestic irrigation systems

Domestic garden irrigation often constitutes a considerable percentage of the total urban scheme water demand. Improvements in irrigation efficiency have the potential to contribute to substantial water savings within the community. Improper scheduling of irrigation systems is one of the key factors contributing to inefficient use of water in domestic irrigation systems. The application of soil moisture sensors that automate irrigation cycles can help negate the effects of poor scheduling which would otherwise lead to over irrigation, resulting in the wastage of water resources and other consequential environmental impacts. A low-cost capacitance soil moisture sensor has been developed and is currently the subject of a twelve month trial at the Environmental Technology Centre, Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. The sensor is being assessed to determine its ability to contribute to water savings when used with shrub sprinklers, microspray and drip line irrigation on sandy soils, in the Mediterranean type climate that Perth experiences

Seasonal persistence of circulation anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere, and its implications for the troposphere

Previous studies have highlighted an important organising influence of the seasonal Southern Hemisphere stratospheric vortex breakdown on the large-scale stratospheric and tropospheric circulation. The present study extends this work by considering the statistical predictability of the stratospheric vortex breakdown event, using re-analysis data. Perturbations to the winter stratospheric vortex are shown to persist into austral spring, and to lead to a shift in the statistics of the breakdown event during austral summer. This is interpreted as evidence for the potential for seasonal predictability of the vortex breakdown event in the stratosphere. Coupled variability between the stratosphere and troposphere is then considered. The semi-annual oscillation of the tropospheric mid-latitude jet is discussed and evidence for a connection between this behaviour and variations in the stratosphere is presented. Based on this connection, an argument is made for the concomitant potential for seasonal predictability in the troposphere, assuming knowledge of the stratospheric initial state. Combining these various results, a non-stationary, regime-based perspective of large-scale extra-tropical Southern Hemisphere circulation variability between late winter and summer is proposed. The implications of this perspective for some previous studies involving Annular Modes of the circulation are discussed. In particular, the long Annular Mode timescales during austral spring and summer should not be interpreted as an increased persistence of perturbations to some slowly varying seasonal cycle, but instead reflect a phase shift of the seasonal cycle induced by stratospheric variability

Hormonal induction of gamete release, and in-vitro fertilisation, in the critically endangered Southern Corroboree Frog, Pseudophryne corroboree

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Conservation Breeding Programs (CBP's) are playing an important role in the protection of critically endangered anuran amphibians, but for many species recruitment is not successful enough to maintain captive populations, or provide individuals for release. In response, there has been an increasing focus on the use of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART), including the administration of reproductive hormones to induce gamete release followed by <it>in vitro </it>fertilisation. The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of two exogenous hormones to induce gamete release, for the purpose of conducting <it>in vitro </it>fertilisation (IVF), in one of Australia's most critically endangered frog species, <it>Pseudophryne corroboree</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Male frogs were administered a single dose of either human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) or luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRHa), while female frogs received both a priming and ovulatory dose of LHRHa. Spermiation responses were evaluated at 3, 7, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 h post hormone administration (PA), and sperm number and viability were quantified using fluorescent microscopy. Ovulation responses were evaluated by stripping females every 12 h PA for 5 days. Once gametes were obtained, IVF was attempted by combining spermic urine with oocytes in a dilute solution of simplified amphibian ringer (SAR).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Administration of both hCG and LHRHa induced approximately 80% of males to release sperm over 72 h. Peak sperm release occurred at 12 h PA for hCG treated males and 36 h PA for LHRHa treated males. On average, LHRHa treated males released a significantly higher total number of live sperm, and a higher concentration of sperm, over a longer period. In female frogs, administration of LHRHa induced approximately 30% of individuals to release eggs. On average, eggs were released between 24 and 48 h PA, with a peak in egg release at 36 h PA. IVF resulted in a moderate percentage (54.72%) of eggs being fertilised, however all resultant embryos failed prior to gastrulation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Hormone treatment successfully induced spermiation and ovulation in <it>P. corroboree</it>, but refinement of gamete induction and IVF techniques will be required before ART protocols can be used to routinely propagate this species.</p

Laser application to measure vertical sea temperature and turbidity, design phase

An experiment to test a new method was designed, using backscattered radiation from a laser beam to measure oceanographic parameters in a fraction of a second. Tyndall, Rayleigh, Brillouin, and Raman scattering all are utilized to evaluate the parameters. A beam from a continuous argon ion laser is used together with an interferometer and interference filters to gather the information. The results are checked by direct measurements. Future shipboard and airborne experiments are described