The Importance of Stopping Environmental Dumping in Ghana: The Case of Inefficient New and Used Cooling Appliances With Obsolete Refrigerants

Environmentally harmful product dumping ( environmental dumping ) of new and used low-efficiency cooling appliances with obsolete ozone-depleting and greenhouse gas refrigerants in African countries impoverishes communities, hinders economic development, threatens ecological systems, and harms public health. The use of low-efficiency cooling appliances increases energy demand, leading to higher power plant emissions and limiting affordable energy access in African countries. These low-efficiency appliances and products contain ozone-depleting refrigerants with high global-warming potential (GWP) or ozone-safe refrigerants with high GWP. Environmental dumping of these appliances and products makes it more difficult for countries to meet their international climate obligations and for the world to meet the Paris Agreement\u27s climate change mitigation targets. Ghana faces high levels of environmental dumping, despite a national ban on importing used cooling appliances and established efficiency standards for new air conditioners and refrigerators. Through the Energy Commission\u27s Office of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, & Climate Change (REEECC), the government of Ghana is partnering with the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) to stop environmental dumping. This article provides a list of interventions that can be implemented by Ghana, by governments in countries that export to Ghana, and by industry and other stakeholders. Notably, these actions focus on the shared responsibility of exporting countries and manufacturers by calling on exporting countries to update and enhance enforcement of their laws, and on global manufacturers to stop exporting inefficient products with obsolete refrigerants to Ghana and other African countries

Venous system mapping of the digits and the hand : an anatomical study and potential surgical applications

Background: Venous anatomy of the digits and the hand is poorly reported in the literature compared to arterial anatomy. While knowledge of the venous anatomy is crucial to ensure safe skin incisions, skin flap design, or blood return restoration for digital replantations, data in anatomical and clinical textbooks are rather limited. The purpose of this anatomical study was to describe the venous anatomy of the digits and the hand. Method: Our series reports descriptive results from 10 non-embalmed hand dissections from 5 different corpses. Hands were previously co-injected by arteries followed by veins with a different colored latex before being dissected under optical magnification (x4). Each anatomical specimen was photographed before being analyzed. Results: Each injection revealed both arterial and venous vascular systems. Latex injections were a useful technique to show the dorsal, volar superficial, and deep venous system. There was a constant and reliable topographic vascular anatomy of the superficial venous system of the digits and hand. However, we could not observe a high density of dorsal superficial venous valves as previously reported. Conclusion: The knowledge of the arrangement of the venous system of the digits and the hand should help the surgeon when performing surgical procedures in the hand. The surgeon should take into consideration this venous anatomy when performing skin incisions, skin flaps, or replantation procedures which would preserve the normal venous physiology as much as possible

Contribution a la paleointensite du champ magnetique terrestre d'apres l'etude de roches magnetiques quaternaires, miocenes et jurassiques

SIGLECNRS T Bordereau / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Late Panafrican evolution of the main Hoggar fault zones: Implications of magnetic fabric study in the In Telloukh pluton (Tin Serririne basin, Algeria)

International audienceThe Late Panafrican evolution of the Hoggar shield is characterized by emplacement of magmatic intrusions and by occurrence of major shear zones separating different terranes. In Telloukh granite is close to the In Guezzam faults (western border of the Tin Serririne basin). Analysis of its visible and magnetic fabrics suggests an emplacement mode and deformation that are not related to the In Guezzam faults, but most likely to a N-S compression, an event not yet identified. Dioritic dykes crosscutting the granite have a very different magnetic fabric, which is related on the contrary to dextral strike-slip movements along the In Guezzam faults. In both cases, no visible fabric can be correlated with the magnetic fabric, which has been likely acquired during late magmatic stages. This magnetic fabric was not significantly affected by the tectonic events that took place after entire crystallization of the magma. The In Guezzam faults and the major 7°30 and 4°50 shear zones are close to intrusions such as In Telloukh dykes and the Alous En Tides and Tesnou plutons where quite similar magnetic fabrics are observed, all related with dextral strike-slip movements along these structures

Upper Cretaceous-Cenozoic uplifts and tectonics within a Precambrian shield — insight from the Hoggar (Algeria) local sedimentary cover

International audienceIn order to better constrain the Mesozoic-Cenozoic evolution of the Precambrian Hoggar shield, a paleomagnetic study, combined with detailed fieldwork, was carried out to date its detrital local cover, the Serouenout Formation. Thermal demagnetization yields, only in a few samples, the characteristic remanent magnetization carried by hematite. Post-tilting remagnetization was obtained in sites located along a fault affected by intense fluids circulation. The paleomagnetic directions recorded at seven widespread other sites are on the contrary associated with a positive fold test. It provides a relatively well-defined paleomagnetic pole (A95 = 4.1°), sufficient to estimate the age of the Serouenout Formation. The comparison of this pole with the reference curve of Africa suggests two possible age windows, Triassic and Upper Cretaceous-Lower Paleocene, while the discovery in the uppermost levels of the Serouenout Formation of a fern-rich level with Weichselia reticulata (Bathonian to Cenomanian; Blanco-Moreno et al., 2018) imposes a deposition during the Cenomanian. The presence of a detrital formation at least 350 m thick, with a basal conglomerate containing large pebbles, implies the existence, during this time period, of a tectonic event that generated differential uplift. In addition, structural observations indicate that the Serouenout Formation recorded later brittle tectonics, dominated by a network of vertical N–S dextral faults. The horizontal displacement generated by one well-developed fault has been estimated to be at least 1 km. This activity is related to the known Alpine reactivations of the N–S Pan-African mega-structures, which are still at the origin of the current intraplate seismicity

“Neotectonics” in the northern African margin: new paleomagnetic constraints from northwestern Algeria

International audiencePrevious paleomagnetic studies performed in the central North-Algeria (Chellif and Mitidja basins) on Neogene formations pointed out tectonic clockwise blocks rotations. This deformation pattern was interpreted as resulting from a bookshelf neotectonics, consequence of the Africa-Eurasia plates convergence. A new paleomagnetic study was conducted on the Neogene volcanic rocks outcropping in the northwestern Algeria (Marset Ben Mhidi, Aïn Temouchent, Tifaraouine area). The obtained stable remanent magnetization is mainly carried by Ti-poor titanomagnetite. The paleomagnetic data show that, since the lava emplacement, the northwestern Algeria underwent a mean moderate clockwise block rotation of 9.3° ± 4.5°. For the Algerian margin, this confirms a context of transpression and blocks rotations in a strike-slip tectonic setting. A decreasing deformation gradient from the E to the W affected the different basins of this margin, from strong rotations within the Mitidja, to the moderate ones in the Chellif and to Marset Ben Mhidi, Aïn Temouchent, Tifaraouine area, where rotation magnitudes are significantly lower