Socio-economic projections in urban climate change adaptation planning:Practices and prospects for just adaptation

Urban climate change adaptation efforts have often been criticized for exacerbating the inequitable impacts of climate change by failing to address the social, economic, and environmental impacts of adaptation. There is an urgent need to incorporate equity and justice concerns in adaptation planning as well as approaches and tools that enable such integration. However, climate justice scholarship to date has largely focused on theoretical questions and there is still a lack of focus on the operational aspects for supporting the implementation of climate justice. In this article, we argue that existing tools already in use in planning practice have the potential to support this aim. In particular, we argue that the integration of socio-economic data into adaptation planning practice could be an avenue for justice-centered urban adaptation. While the potential is clear, how to do this is still underexplored. To shed light on this question, we conduct a systematic review of research on the use of socio-economic projections in urban climate change adaptation planning and decision-making to investigate how these could be used as a tool to ensure just urban adaptation. Grounded in a recognized conceptual framework on urban climate justice, we analyze the evolution of research on socio-economic projections in urban adaptation and evaluate the potential for existing applications to promote climate justice. Through this analysis, we find that while socio-economic projections have not been explicitly linked to justice outcomes in the existing literature, clear potentials exist for these to be used as a tool to promote distributive, procedural, and recognition and restorative justice. Finally, we propose an operational framework for the application of socio-economic projections to promote justice-centered urban adaptation. Applying such a framework to urban adaptation planning can help center justice concerns in larger strategic adaptation planning efforts and enable a new form of more inclusive, data-driven climate governance in cities based on current know-how and existing capacities

Predicting prosocial tendencies among college students

Prosocial behaviors inherently benefit oneself, others, and the larger society. Therefore, further investigation as to which factors influence positive social acts is beneficial to better understand what motivates prosocial behavior as well as how it may be promoted. Much of the literature on prosocial behavior targets the construct of empathy. However, little research has been done to differentiate between cognitive and affective empathy, and their relationship with prosocial behaviors. Moreover, proponents of rational compassion, consisting of rational thinking and compassion, contradict the positive assessment of empathy's contributions to positive social acts by proposing that empathy may not be the best predictor of prosocial behavior. Consequently, this project aimed to determine which among the constructs of empathy and compassion in addition to fairness and kindness best predict prosocial tendencies in a variety of contexts. The current study assessed prosocial tendencies, cognitive and affective empathy, rational compassion, fairness, and kindness among college-aged participants. The resulting data were analyzed using a hierarchical regression with empathy, compassion, fairness, and kindness as predictors, and prosocial tendencies as the outcome variable. Results indicated that cognitive empathy and kindness were the strongest predictors of positive social behavior. Sex was also explored as a moderator and indicated that the effect of kindness on prosocial tendencies depended on participant sex. Overall, this study elucidates the factors that influence prosocial behavior

The application of a cavity ring-down spectrometer to measurements of ambient ammonia using traceable primary standard gas mixtures

A correction for the undesirable effects of direct and indirect cross-interference from water vapour on ammonia (NH$_3$) measurements was developed using an optical laser sensor based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy. This correction relied on new measurements of the collisional broadening due to water vapour of two NH$_3$ spectral lines in the near infra-red (6548.6 and 6548.8 cm$^{−1}$), and on the development of novel stable primary standard gas mixtures (PSMs) of ammonia prepared by gravimetry in passivated gas cylinders at 100 μmol mol$^{−1}$. The PSMs were diluted dynamically to provide calibration mixtures of dry and humidified ammonia atmospheres of known composition in the nmol mol$^{−1}$ range and were employed as part of establishing a metrological traceability chain to improve the reliability and accuracy of ambient ammonia measurements. The successful implementation of this correction will allow the extension of this rapid on-line spectroscopic technique to exposure chamber validation tests under controlled conditions and ambient monitoring in the field.We gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the Chemical and Biological Metrology Programme of the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) of the European Union. The EMRP is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within EURAMET and the European Union.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00340-016-6486-

Provably safe design of driver-assist systems through hybrid automata with hidden modes

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-73).In this thesis, I consider the problem of collision avoidance between two vehicles approaching an intersection. These vehicles are human driven and one or both are equipped with an on-board driver assist system that provides warnings and can apply automatic braking/throttle when needed. This type of system will establish an intermediary step in the progression towards fully autonomous vehicles. It will allow human drivers to retain control of their vehicles while providing the guidance for drivers to apply the necessary inputs to prevent collisions before autonomous control becomes necessary. A formal approach to the design of the driver assist system is taken, employing a hybrid automaton model. This model has hidden modes, which arise from the driver making decisions about whether or not to follow the provided warnings. As a consequence, the driver assist system design is formulated as a safety control problem for a hybrid automaton with hidden modes. The solution approach is based on a mode estimator that keeps track of the possible driver decisions and, on their basis, provides warning and control inputs that ensure safety. The resulting algorithm is computationally efficient as it leverages the order preserving properties of the vehicle dynamics.by Cassidy Martin Palas.S.M

Development of a SEM-based low-energy in-line electron holography microscope for individual particle imaging

A new SEM-based in-line electron holography microscope has been under development. The microscope utilizes conventional SEM and BF-STEM functionality to allow for rapid searching of the specimen of interest, seamless interchange between SEM, BF-STEM and holographic imaging modes, and makes use of coherent low-energy in-line electron holography to obtain low-dose, high-contrast images of light element materials. We report here an overview of the instrumentation and first experimental results on gold nano-particles and carbon nano-fibers for system performance tests. Reconstructed images obtained from the holographic imaging mode of the new microscope show substantial image contrast and resolution compared to those acquired by SEM and BF-STEM modes, demonstrating the feasibility of high-contrast imaging via low-energy in-line electron holography. The prospect of utilizing the new microscope to image purified biological specimens at the individual particle level is discussed and electron optical issues and challenges to further improve resolution and contrast are considered

Spontaneous electric fields in solid carbon monoxide

Reflection–absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is shown to provide a means of observing the spontelectric phase of matter, the defining characteristic of which is the occurrence of a spontaneous and powerful static electric field within a film of material.</p

Mapping a waste disposal site using Tellus airborne geophysical data

Leakage of fluids from unregulated and/or poorly engineered waste disposal sites poses a significant direct risk to groundwater quality. Characterisation and monitoring of waste disposal sites and potentially associated groundwater contaminant plumes are generally invasive, time-consuming and expensive, particularly when the extent of the plume is unknown. This study examines the value of incorporating of Tellus and Tellus Border airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data into current assessment protocols for the characterisation and monitoring of contaminant sources and subsurface contaminant plumes. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of using airborne and ground-based non-invasive geophysical data as part of existing tiered assessment protocols for prioritising suspected sites and for guiding targeted intrusive investigations and subsequent remediation efforts