Lessons Learned: Solutions for Workplace Safety and Health

Provides case studies of workplace health hazards, regulatory actions taken, and solutions, including product and design alternatives; a synthesis of findings and lessons learned; and federal- and state-level recommendations

Thinking international relations differently - Introduction

Son muchas las voces que se alzan para enfrentarse al dominio de Occidente, al que podríamos también llamar el núcleo o el centro, en el campo de las Relaciones Internacionales. Que esta disciplina es indiferente a las prácticas académicas y a las cuestiones políticas ajenas a dicho núcleo, e incluso las desprecia, y que sus herramientas conceptuales primarias, categorías analíticas y conceptos están escasamente preparados para comprender muchos de los problemas globales más importantes, es algo que no discuten más que un número sorprendentemente pequeño de académicos, incluso de los que pertenecen a corrientes mayoritarias. Y sin embargo, la estructura centro-periferia que gobierna el aparato de producción intelectual de las Relaciones Internacionales se ha mostrado relativamente inmune a estas acusacionesA host of voices has risen to challenge Western or core dominance of the field of International relations (IR). That the field is indifferent to scholarly practices and policy issues outside the core and even dismissive of them, and that its primary conceptual tools, analytical categories, and concepts are ill-equipped for understanding many of today’s key global problems, is disputed by shockingly few scholars, even those that represent the “mainstream”. And yet, the core-periphery structure that governs the apparatus of intellectual production in IR has proven relatively immune to these charge

Three paths for learning analytics and beyond: moving from rhetoric to reality

There is growing rhetoric about the potential of learning analytics in higher education. There is concern about what the growing hype around learning analytics will mean for the reality. Will learning analytics be a repeat of past mistakes where technology implementations fail to move beyond a transitory fad and provide meaningful and sustained contributions to learning and teaching? How can such a fate be avoided? This paper identifies three paths that learning analytics implementations might take, with particular consideration to their likely impact on learning and teaching. An ongoing learning analytics project – currently used by hundreds of teaching staff to at a regional Australian university is examined in relation to the three paths, and some implications, challenges and future directions are discussed

Pensar la Diferencia - Introducción

Son muchas las voces que se alzan para enfrentarse al dominio de Occidente, al que podríamos también llamar el núcleo o el centro, en el campo de las Relaciones Internacionales. Que esta disciplina es indiferente a las prácticas académicas y a las cuestiones políticas ajenas a dicho núcleo, e incluso las desprecia, y que sus herramientas conceptuales primarias, categorías analíticas y conceptos están escasamente preparados para comprender muchos de los problemas globales más importantes, es algo que no discuten más que un número sorprendentemente pequeño de académicos, incluso de los que pertenecen a corrientes mayoritarias. Y sin embargo, la estructura centro-periferia que gobierna el aparato de producción intelectual de las Relaciones Internacionales se ha mostrado relativamente inmune  a estas acusaciones

Managing rivers for multiple benefits – a coherent approach to research, policy and planning

Rivers provide water for irrigation, domestic supply, power generation and industry as well as a range of other ecosystem services and intrinsic and biodiversity values. Managing rivers to provide multiple benefits is therefore foundational to water security and other policy priorities. Because river flow is often insufficient to meet all needs fully, water management experts have acknowledged the need for trade-offs in river management. Ecosystem scientists have classified and quantified goods and services that rivers provide to society. However, they have seldom examined the way in which water management infrastructure and institutional arrangements harness and direct goods and services to different groups in society. Meanwhile, water management paradigms have often considered freshwater ecosystems as rival water users to society or a source of natural hazards and have underplayed the role healthy ecosystems play in providing multiple social and economic benefits. We argue that physical and social structures and processes are necessary to realize multiple benefits from river ecosystems, and that these structures and processes, in the form of (formal and informal) institutions and (gray and green) infrastructure, shape how benefits accrue to different groups in society. We contend that institutions and infrastructure are in turn shaped by political economy. We suggest a more coherent framework for river management research, policy and planning that focuses on (a) the ways in which political economy, institutions and infrastructure mediate access and entitlements to benefits derived from ecosystem services, and (b) the feedbacks and trade-offs between investments in physical and social structures and processes

Spectrally undiscerned isomers might lead to erroneous determination of water exchange rates of paraCEST Eu(III) agents

[Abstract] We report a detailed study of the solution structure and water exchange rate of a Eu(III) complex with the cyclen-based ligand L1, containing (S)-2-(2-acetamido)-3-(4 (trifluoromethyl)phenyl)propanoate pendant arms at positions 1 and 7 of the cyclen ring and acetylglycinate pendants at positions 4 and 10. The EuL1 complex was characterized by a combination of NMR and luminescence spectroscopy and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) spectra obtained at different temperatures and saturation powers present a CEST signal attributed to the coordinated water molecule. However, the spectra recorded at low temperatures (10 °C) and low saturation powers revealed the presence of two different species with coordinated water molecules having very similar chemical shifts. Determination of the water exchange rates of the coordinated water molecules was carried out by using the Bloch four-pool model that accounts for the presence of these isomers, and this model was compared to conventional methods for CEST quantification, namely the Omega plot and QUESP (quantification of exchange rate as a function of saturation power), which assume the presence of a single CEST active species. The results indicated that only the four-pool Bloch equations provide reasonable water exchange rates and activation parameters. Solution NMR studies and DFT calculations indicated that the two isomers present in solution correspond to the SS-Δ(λλλλ) and SS-Λ(δδδδ) isomers, which present capped square-antiprismatic (SAP) coordination environments. Additional NMR studies on the EuL2 and EuL3complexes, which present four (S)-2-(2-acetamido)-3-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)propanoate or acetylglycinate pendant arms, respectively, confirm the results obtained for EuL1.Ministerio de Economía y Competitivad; CTQ2015-71211-REDTMinisterio de Economía y Competitivad; CTQ2013-43243-PGerman Research Foundation; ZA 814/2-

Managing the Three Gorges Dam to Implement Environmental Flows in the Yangtze River

The construction of the Three Gorges Dam, along with other development in the Yangtze River basin, has had profound consequences for the river's flow and sediment regime. This has had major impacts on the geomorphology and ecology of the river downstream of the dam, with related impacts on biodiversity, including fish populations, livelihoods, and water security in the middle and lower Yangtze. Changes to fish populations have included a fall of around 90% in the total number of fish fry for the four economically-important Chinese carp species, caused at least in part by alterations in the flow regime. In response, there has been increased research into the significance of flow regimes for Chinese carp, as well as other aspects of river health. A partnership between the Chinese Government, the dam operator, scientists, and conservationists has led to pilot environmental flow releases over a 5-year period in an attempt to mitigate some of these impacts. Subsequent monitoring has shown that numbers of fish fry are increasing from the low they had fallen to in 2008. Drawing on lessons from the pilot environmental flow releases, in October 2015 the official regulations that govern operations of the Three Gorges Dam were amended to incorporate additional objectives, including incorporating environmental flow releases as part of the routine operation of the dam. This paper describes the processes that led to the environmental flow program from Three Gorges, a review of monitoring data collected during the pilot environmental flow releases, the subsequent amendment of the dam operating rules, and prospects for expanding environmental flow implementation in the Yangtze River in coming years

Can nature deliver on the sustainable development goals?

The increasing availability of data and improved analytical techniques now enable better understanding of where environmental conditions and human health are tightly linked, and where investing in nature can deliver net benefits for people—especially with respect to the most vulnerable populations in developing countries. These advances bring more opportunities for interventions that can advance multiple SDGs at once. We have harmonised a suite of global datasets to explore the essential nexus of forests, poverty, and human health, an overlap of SDG numbers 1, 2, 3, 6, and 15. Our study combined demographic and health surveys for 297 112 children in 35 developing countries with data describing the local environmental conditions for each child (appendix).4 This allowed us to estimate the effect forests might have in supporting human health, while controlling for the influence of important socio-economic differences.4 We extended this work to look at how forests affect three childhood health concerns of global significance for the world's poorest people: stunting, anaemia, and diarrhoeal disease

Small Molecule Inhibitors of the Neuropilin-1 Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A (VEGF-A) Interaction†

We report the molecular design and synthesis of EG00229, 2, the first small molecule ligand for the VEGF-A receptor neuropilin 1 (NRP1) and the structural characterization of NRP1-ligand complexes by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Mutagenesis studies localized VEGF-A binding in the NRP1 b1 domain and a peptide fragment of VEGF-A was shown to bind at the same site by NMR, providing the basis for small molecule design. Compound 2 demonstrated inhibition of VEGF-A binding to NRP1 and attenuated VEGFR2 phosphorylation in endothelial cells. Inhibition of migration of endothelial cells was also observed. The viability of A549 lung carcinoma cells was reduced by 2, and it increased the potency of the cytotoxic agents paclitaxel and 5-fluorouracil when given in combination. These studies provide the basis for design of specific small molecule inhibitors of ligand binding to NRP1

Bending the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss: an emergency recovery plan

Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity are well documented but coordinated action to reverse the decline is lacking. We present an Emergency Recovery Plan to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss. Priority actions include accelerating implementation of environmental flows; improving water quality; protecting and restoring critical habitats; managing the exploitation of freshwater ecosystem resources, especially species and riverine aggregates; preventing and controlling nonnative species invasions; and safeguarding and restoring river connectivity. We recommend adjustments to targets and indicators for the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals and roles for national and international state and nonstate actors