Transparency

Transparency, as information disclosure, is becoming a widely accepted norm and set of practices in global climate governance. Disclosure of climate-related information is mainly seen as a way to monitor and/or reward various actors’ climate mitigation actions, thereby contributing, at least in principle, to the accountability both of private disclosers for their (non-)performance, and also of public policymakers for the reach and effectiveness of governance outcomes. Transparency’s transformative effects in global climate governance remain particularly important to consider, given the increasingly heterogeneous and fragmented nature of such governance—encompassing treaties, transnational municipal networks, subnational actors, bilateral agreements and voluntary corporate initiatives. In assessing the transformative potential of transparency in the climate realm, this chapter focuses, first, on contentious debates within the UNFCCC around measuring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems that seek to make transparent who is doing what, how, and to what end in combating climate change. Second, the focus is on private carbon disclosure initiatives and transparency arrangements that underpin voluntary carbon offset markets. The chapter concludes that the transformative potential of transparency is being compromised by an increasing privatization and marketization of disclosure initiatives in the climate realm

Disclosing or obscuring? the politics of transparency in climate governance

Transparency is increasingly evoked within public and private climate governance arrangements as a key means to enhance accountability and improve environmental outcomes. We review assumed links between transparency, accountability and environmental sustainability here, by identifying four rationales underpinning uptake of transparency in governance. We label these democratization, technocratization, marketization and privatization, and assess how they shape the scope and practices of climate disclosure, and to what effect. We find that all four are discernible in climate governance, yet the technocratic and privatization rationales tend to overtake the originally intended (more inclusive, and more public-good oriented) democratization and marketization rationales for transparency, particularly during institutionalization of disclosure systems. This reduces transparency’s potential to enhance accountability or trigger more environmentally sustainable outcomes

Ion activated bioadhesive in situ gel of clindamycin for vaginal application

Vaginal preparations, although generally perceived as safer most , still they are associated with a number of problems, including multiple days of dosing, dripping, leakage and messiness, causing discomfort to users and expulsion due to the self-cleansing action of the vaginal tract. These limitations lead to poor patient compliance and failure of the desired therapeutic effects. For effective vaginal delivery of antimicrobial agents, the drug delivery system should reside at the site of infection for a prolonged period of time. In our present work, we have developed and optimized a chitosan (bioadhesive and permeation enhancer) and gellan gum (ion activated gelling polymer) based in situ gel system of clindamycin for vaginal application. The developed formulation was characterized for various in-vitro parameters e.g. clarity, refractive index, pH, isotonicity, sterility, viscosity, drug release profile, statistical release kinetics, bioadhesive force, retention time, microbial efficacy, irritation test and stability studies. To simulate vaginal conditions, a synthetic membrane (cellophane hydrated with modified simulated vaginal fluid) and sheep vaginal mucosa were used as model membranes. The developed formulation was found to be non irritant, bioadhesive with good retention properties. Developed formulation shows matrix model release kinetic by PCP disso software. The developed formulation is thus a viable alternative to conventional vaginal dosage forms.Keywords: sol-to-gel system; chitosan; gellan gum; vaginal; clindamyci

RTL2RTL Formal Equivalence: Boosting the Design Confidence

Increasing design complexity driven by feature and performance requirements and the Time to Market (TTM) constraints force a faster design and validation closure. This in turn enforces novel ways of identifying and debugging behavioral inconsistencies early in the design cycle. Addition of incremental features and timing fixes may alter the legacy design behavior and would inadvertently result in undesirable bugs. The most common method of verifying the correctness of the changed design is to run a dynamic regression test suite before and after the intended changes and compare the results, a method which is not exhaustive. Modern Formal Verification (FV) techniques involving new methods of proving Sequential Hardware Equivalence enabled a new set of solutions for the given problem, with complete coverage guarantee. Formal Equivalence can be applied for proving functional integrity after design changes resulting from a wide variety of reasons, ranging from simple pipeline optimizations to complex logic redistributions. We present here our experience of successfully applying the RTL to RTL (RTL2RTL) Formal Verification across a wide spectrum of problems on a Graphics design. The RTL2RTL FV enabled checking the design sanity in a very short time, thus enabling faster and safer design churn. The techniques presented in this paper are applicable to any complex hardware design.Comment: In Proceedings FSFMA 2014, arXiv:1407.195

Postural assessment of children with spastic cerebral palsy: a cross-sectional study

Background: Children with cerebral palsy (CP) exhibit gait difficulties, posture alignment issues when standing, and issues with body orientation in space as a result of both primary and secondary CP deficits. The purpose of this study was to analyze the posture of children with spastic diplegic CP. Methods: The 17 subjects of age group 3-10 years with GMFCS scale I-II of CP were taken in the study and compared with age matched control group of 17 typical development (TD) children. The postural assessment was carried out using the photographic method. Angles like the head angle, angle of hip joint, angle of ankle joint were calculated with the help of Matlab script. Results: The Pearson's correlation was utilised to examine the relationship between various postural angles in the CP group while the t-test was used to analyse differences between the two groups. The two groups were found to differ in every measure but horizontal alignment of acromion (HAAC), angle of hip (AH), angle of knee (AK), angle of ankle (AA), scapular alignment right and left (SAR) (SAL) were significantly different in CP group rather than TD group (p<0.01) and postural angles were found to be significantly correlated in CP group (p<0.01). Conclusions: The postural angles in children with spastic CP are deviated from the normal angle. Correct analysis of posture gives us a tool to identify the altered biomechanics and further design an intervention program which will address the mal-aligned structures