Implications of climate change for shipping: Ports and supply chains

Ports are an important economic actor—at local, national, and international scales—that have been identified as being vulnerable to future changes to the climate. This paper details the findings from an international review of state‐of‐the‐art knowledge concerning climate risks, and adaptation responses, for ports and their supply chains. Evidence from both academic and gray literature indicates that there has already been major damage and disruption to ports across the world from climate‐related hazards and that such impacts are projected to increase in the years and decades to come. Findings indicate that while a substantial—and growing—body of scientific evidence on coastal risks and potential adaptation options is acting as a stimulus for port authorities to explicitly consider the risks for their assets and operations, only a notable few have actually made the next step toward implementing adaptation strategies. This paper concludes by putting forward constructive recommendations for the sector and suggestions for research to address remaining knowledge gaps. It emphasizes a call for collaboration between the research and practice communities, as well as the need to engage a broad range of stakeholders in the adaptation planning process

Visibility and verifiability in port governance transparency: exploring stakeholder expectations

Transparency remains an under-analyzed topic in port research, and previous research has shown that port decision-making and governance reporting are inconsistent across countries. While transparency might be imposed through legislation or voluntarily adopted, effective transparency also includes (a) an organization’s willingness to consistently communicate and make transparent information available to internal or external stakeholders and (b) the stakeholder`s expectations on the visibility and verifiability of information. This paper focuses primarily on the second of these, extending an earlier study that explored the availability of information accessible to the public and port stakeholders through a port’s most public face—its website (Brooks et al. 2020). This research examines a subset of 27 governance variables from Brooks et al. (2020), who explored 59 separate items to identify transparency practices by ports, revealing uneven levels of port transparency. The scope is to identify what different port stakeholders expect to be visible and readily available in terms of board meeting openness, board director conflict of interest, board provided information, and board reports/publications. Stakeholders also provided their perceptions of how trustworthy board reporting was perceived. The data set includes 134 usable responses from 38 countries and this paper analyzes similarities and differences across stakeholders and countries. The responses from the survey are also considered in the light of the results from Brooks et al. (2020) and the extent that ports currently make these variables visible and available. The study concludes by discussing a further research agenda towards a more transparent and thus better port industry. © 2021, World Maritime University

Design and implementation of a study evaluating extinction processes to food cues in obese children: the Intervention for Regulations of Cues Trial (iROC).

Obesity and its health sequelae affect a significant portion of children in the United States. Yet, the current gold-standard family-based behavioral weight-loss treatments are only effective for one-third of children long-term. Therefore, we developed iROC (Intervention for Regulation of Cues) to specifically target a method to decrease overeating in overweight children, based on learning theory, to inform and enhance interventions targeting diet and obesity in youth. This study will rigorously test extinction processes as a method of decreasing physiological and psychological responses to food cues in overweight and obese children. Through exposing children to their highly craved foods, and 'training the brain and body' to decrease overeating, we are hoping to produce longer-lasting weight loss or weight-gain prevention over time

Reflexão sobre metodologias de projeto arquitetônico

This paper discusses architectural design methods in view of the present day complexities of the creative process, technological advances and social and economic changes. This scenario demands a change in attitude and the application of more systematic procedures during the design process. Various design methods are presented which discuss the synthesis, analysis and evaluation of the important architectural factors. The potential of these methods are shown. Techniques and procedures for building performance assessment, design evaluation, and drawing and drafting are presented, as well as the use of physical and virtual models. Thus, the paper reflects upon the ways and means of how architects organize the search for high quality design solutions which satisfy human needs.Este artigo discute métodos de projeto arquitetônico à luz das complexidades atuais do processo criativo, dos avanços ecnológicos e das mudanças sociais e econômica. Este panorama uma mudança de atitude e a aplicação de procedimentos mais sistemáticos durante o processo de projeto. Vários métodos de projeto são apresentados, os quais discutem a síntese, a análise e a avaliação de importantes fatores arquitetônicos. O potencial destes métodos é analisado. Técnicas e procedimentos para avaliação do desempenho de edifícios, avaliação de projetos e desenho são discutidos, assim como o uso de modelos físicos e virtuais. Assim, o artigo faz uma reflexão sobre as formas e meios pelos quais os arquitetos organizam a busca das soluções de projeto de alta qualidade, que satisfaçam as necessidades humanas