Assessing the climate vulnerability of the world’s natural and cultural heritage

Climate change is the fastest-growing global threat to the world’s natural and cultural heritage. No systematic approach to assess climate vulnerability of protected areas and their associated communities has existed—until now. The Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) is scientifically robust, transparent, and repeatable, and has now been applied to various World Heritage properties. The CVI builds upon an established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework to systematically assess vulnerability through a risk assessment approach that considers the key values of the World Heritage property in question and identifies key climate stressors. The CVI process is then used to assess the climate-related vulnerability of the community (including local residents, domestic visitors, and international tourists) associated with the World Heritage property considering economic, social, and cultural connections. Climate impacts are increasingly adding to a wide range of compounding pressures (e.g., increasing tourism, infrastructure development, changing land use practices) that are affecting places, people, customs, and values. Applications of the CVI to date have led to commitments to integrate outcomes into relevant management plans, and to periodically repeat the process, enabling responsive management to changing future circumstances. The CVI has also demonstrated its potential applicability for protected areas beyond World Heritage properties. The CVI process engages local community members in determining impacts, provides opportunities for identifying adaptation and impact mitigation within the community, and aids broader communication about key climate issues

Calibration of a fission gas monitor

Calibration of argon gas neutron activation sampling devic

User benefits and funding strategies

The justification, economic and technological benefits of NASA Space Programs (aside from pure scientific objectives), in improving the quality of life in the United States is discussed and outlined. Specifically, a three-step, systematic method is described for selecting relevant and highly beneficial payloads and instruments for the Interim Upper Stage (IUS) that will be used with the space shuttle until the space tug becomes available. Viable Government and private industry cost-sharing strategies which would maximize the number of IUS payloads, and the benefits obtainable under a limited NASA budget were also determined. Charts are shown which list the payload instruments, and their relevance in contributing to such areas as earth resources management, agriculture, weather forecasting, and many others

An inter-comparison of Arctic synoptic scale storms between four global reanalysis datasets

The Arctic is becoming more accessible as sea ice extent continues to decline, resulting in higher human exposure to Arctic storms. This study compares Arctic storm characteristics between the ECMWF-Interim Reanalysis, 55-year Japanese Reanalysis, NASA-Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 and National Centre for Environmental Prediction-Climate Forecast System Reanalysis datasets between 1980 and 2017, in winter (DJF) and summer (JJA). It is shown that Arctic storm characteristics are sensitive to the variable used for storm tracking. Arctic storm frequency is found to be similar in summer and winter when using sea level pressure minima to track Arctic storms, whereas, the storm frequency is found to be higher in winter than summer when using 850 hPa relative vorticity to track storms, based on using the same storm tracking algorithm. It is also found that there are no significant trends in Arctic storm characteristics between 1980 and 2017. Given the sparsity of observations in the Arctic, it might be expected that there are large differences in Arctic storm characteristics between the reanalysis datasets. Though, some similar Arctic storm characteristics are found between the reanalysis datasets, it is found that the differences in Arctic storm characteristics between the reanalysis datasets are generally higher in winter than in summer. Overall, the results show that there are differences in Arctic storm characteristics between reanalysis datasets, but even larger differences can arise between using 850 hPa relative vorticity or mean sea level pressure as the storm tracking variable, which adds to the uncertainty associated with current Arctic storm characteristics

Serving children: the impact of poverty on children's experiences of services

This study arose from the identification of a gap in knowledge and corresponding need for the development of a better contemporary understanding of children's experiences of poverty. Focusing on children aged 10 - 14 years, the study aimed to provide a perspective on the lives of children and young people affected by poverty in Scotland through comparing the experiences of children living in poverty with those more economically advantaged

Summary of Voyager Design and Flight Loads

Estimates of flight loads for Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are summarized and compared to the Voyager design loads obtained from the shock spectra/impedance method and to the loads obtained using space vehicle transient loads analysis. These estimates were obtained by using the measured flight accelerations at the launch vehicle/spacecraft interface as forcing functions for the Voyager mathematical model. Based on these data, an assessment of the shock spectra/impedance loads method used for Voyager is presented. The following conclusions were reached: (1) the shock spectra approach provided reasonable conservative design loads for Voyager, (2) care has to be executed to insure that all critical events are accounted for in constructing shock spectra envelopes, (3) the selection of critical events is not always obvious, especially for those flight events wherein the spacecraft dynamic characteristics are important, and (4) the success of the method is strongly dependent on the analysts' experience and judgement

Solar-heated new technology house (1993)

In 1980, the College of Agriculture completed construction of a solar-heated home on a University farm near Columbia. It's called a New Technology House because it incorporates the latest technology available for home construction. The major emphasis is on energy conservation and solar heating.Reviewed October 1993

Total scattering descriptions of local and cooperative distortions in the oxide spinel (Mg,Cu)Cr2O4 with dilute Jahn-Teller ions

The normal spinel oxide MgCr2O4 is cubic at room temperature while the normal spinel CuCr2O4 is tetragonal as a consequence of the Jahn-Teller nature of Cu2+ on the tetrahedral sites. Despite different end-member structures, complete solid solutions of Mg_{1-x}Cu_xCr2O4 can be prepared that display a first-order structural transition with composition x = 0.43 at room temperature. Reverse Monte Carlo analysis of total neutron scattering on data acquired between 300 K and 15 K on samples with x = 0.10, 0.20, and 0.43 provides unbiased local and average structure descriptions of the samples, including an understanding of the transition from local Jahn-Teller distortions in the cubic phase to cooperative distortions that result in a tetragonal structure. Distributions of continuous symmetry measures help to understand and distinguish distorted and undistorted coordination around the tetrahedral site in the solid solutions. Magnetic exchange bias is observed in field-cooled hysteresis loops of samples with dilute Cu2+ concentration and in samples with tetragonal--cubic phase coexistence around 300 K.Comment: 10 pages, 14 figure

Optimization of pumping efficiency and divertor operation in DEMO

In the present work a sensitivity analysis of the pumping performance of a standard divertor design for two extreme dome cases (with and without) and different pumping port locations is performed. Such an investigation re-assesses the role of the divertor dome in the design of a DEMO divertor cassette. The non-linear neutral gas flow in the private flux and sub-divertor region is modeled based on the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, which takes into account the intermolecular collisions as well as the interaction of the molecules with the stationary walls. For this specific configuration, three different pumping port locations, namely in the low and high field bottom sides of the sub-divertor and directly under the dome haven been chosen. It is shown that the optimum pumping port location is found to be directly under the dome, since the pumped particle flux is increased by a factor 2–3 compared to the one, where the port is located inside the low and high field side divertor “shoulders”, respectively. In addition, the divertor dome physically restricts the conductance between the private flux region and the main chamber, enabling the compression of the neutral gas. However, the dome has no direct influence on the macroscopic parameters as the number density and the temperature at the pumping port. Furthermore, it is shown that without the dome, a strong outflux of neutrals towards the plasma core and through the x-point and its vicinity can be expected. This outflux can be reduced by a factor of 2 by positioning the pumping port directly under the dome. Finally it is noted that in all the obtained calculations, the flow field remains homogeneous without the presence of vortices. This can be explained by the fact that the studied geometry does not include any high curvature surfaces, which promote the formation of such flow structures