Multilevel stakeholder influence mapping in climate change adaptation regimes

The extent to which any policy, planning, or funding frameworks aimed at supporting climate change adaptation contribute to improved adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers is strongly affected by the power/influence dynamics between actors within those regimes. Power and influence studies have renewed relevance due to the current proliferation of adaptation initiatives. As these initiatives evolve, they bring up questions of equity, justice, and fairness surrounding the origins and distribution of adaptation resources. In doing so, they have shed light on persistent inequalities in status quo development regimes and asymmetrical power balances between stakeholders. To avoid exacerbating inequalities that contribute to conflict, perpetuate cycles of poverty, and prevent much needed resources from reaching vulnerable communities, it is essential that practitioners seek to make power/influence relationships transparent within any given adaptation regime. Exposing and characterizing these relationships is complex, sensitive, and involves multiple perspectives. This paper introduces the Multilevel Stakeholder Influence Mapping (MSIM) tool, which aims to assist analysts in the study of power dynamics across levels within climate adaptation regimes. The tool is adapted from the Stakeholder Influence-Mapping tool (2005) of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). MSIM is a simple visual tool to examine and display the relative power/influence that different individuals and groups have over a focal issue—in this case, climate change adaptation of smallholder farmers. The tool can be applied individually or in groups, as often as desired, to capture multiple perspectives and also to act as an intermediary object facilitating expression of sensitive information. The multilevel adapted version of the tool was trialed with a cross-section of actors in Nepal’s agricultural climate change adaptation regime. The results of this pilot, the tool use guidelines, and triangulation with supporting methods, as well as forward-looking applications in climate adaptation are provided herein

Community-based adaptation costing: An integrated framework for the participatory costing of community-based adaptations to climate change in agriculture

Understanding the cost associated with climate change adaptation interventions in agriculture is important for mobilizing institutional support and providing timely resources to improve resilience and adaptive capacities. Top-down national estimates of adaptation costs carry a risk of mismatching the availability of funds with what is actually required on the ground. Consequently, global and national policies require credible evidence from the local level, taking into account microeconomic dynamics and community-appropriate adaptation strategies. These bottom-up studies will improve adaptation planning (the how) and will also serve to inform and validate top-down assessments of the total costs of adaptation (the how much). Participatory Social Return on Investment (PSROI) seeks to provide a pragmatic, local-level planning and costing framework suitable for replication by government and civil society organizations. The ‘PSROI Framework’ is designed around a participatory workshop for prioritizing and planning community-based adaptation (CBA) strategies, followed by an analysis of the economic, social and environmental impacts of the priority measures using a novel cost-benefit analysis framework. The PSROI framework has been applied in three separate pilot initiatives in Kochiel and Othidhe, Kenya, and Dodji, Senegal. This working paper seeks to outline the theoretical and methodological foundations of the PSROI framework, provide case-study results from each pilot study, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the framework according to its robustness, effectiveness and scalabilit

Classification of Static Charged Black Holes in Higher Dimensions

The uniqueness theorem for static charged higher dimensional black hole containing an asymptotically flat spacelike hypersurface with compact interior and with both degenerate and non-degenerate components of event horizon is proposed. By studies of the near-horizon geometry of degenerate horizons one was able to eliminate the previous restriction concerning the inequality fulfilled by the charges of the adequate components of the aforementioned horizons.Comment: 9 pages, RevTex, to be published in Phys.Rev. D1

On the Topology of Black Hole Event Horizons in Higher Dimensions

In four dimensions the topology of the event horizon of an asymptotically flat stationary black hole is uniquely determined to be the two-sphere $S^2$. We consider the topology of event horizons in higher dimensions. First, we reconsider Hawking's theorem and show that the integrated Ricci scalar curvature with respect to the induced metric on the event horizon is positive also in higher dimensions. Using this and Thurston's geometric types classification of three-manifolds, we find that the only possible geometric types of event horizons in five dimensions are $S^3$ and $S^2 \times S^1$. In six dimensions we use the requirement that the horizon is cobordant to a four-sphere (topological censorship), Friedman's classification of topological four-manifolds and Donaldson's results on smooth four-manifolds, and show that simply connected event horizons are homeomorphic to $S^4$ or $S^2\times S^2$. We find allowed non-simply connected event horizons $S^3\times S^1$ and $S^2\times \Sigma_g$, and event horizons with finite non-abelian first homotopy group, whose universal cover is $S^4$. Finally, following Smale's results we discuss the classification in dimensions higher than six.Comment: 12 pages, minor edits 27/09/0

Topology Change of Coalescing Black Holes on Eguchi-Hanson Space

We construct multi-black hole solutions in the five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell theory with a positive cosmological constant on the Eguchi-Hanson space, which is an asymptotically locally Euclidean space. The solutions describe the physical process such that two black holes with the topology of S^3 coalesce into a single black hole with the topology of the lens space L(2;1)=S^3/Z_2. We discuss how the area of the single black hole after the coalescence depends on the topology of the horizon.Comment: 10 pages, Some comments are added. to be published as a letter in Classical and Quantum Gravit

Crisis-flagged Misdemeanors in Seattle: Arrests, Referrals, Charges, and Case Dispositions

Objective: to study the features of misdemeanor arrests, charges, referrals, and case dispositions of behavioral crisis-flagged incidents in the largest city in the US north-west - Seattle.Methods: the study employs a quasi-experimental design to examine misdemeanor arrests, charges, referrals, and case dispositions of behavioral crisis-flagged incidents to better understand how individuals who are experiencing behavioral crisis are processed through the misdemeanor justice system. A sample of 505 cases of behavioral-crisis flagged incidents in Seattle from 2016-2018 are compared with a matched random sample of 1053 non-crisis cases examining similarities and differences in arrest, referral, charges, and case disposition.Results: misdemeanor offenses often involve individuals experiencing behavioral crises such as mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness. Little is known about how individuals in behavioral crisis arrested for misdemeanors are processed through the criminal justice system. In 2015, the Seattle Police Department implemented a Crisis Intervention Policy that employed a crisis template enabling systematic identifi of incidents fl by law enforcement as involving “behavioral crisis” to improve data collection and police response to incidents involving individuals in behavioral crisis. Implications for crisis intervention, case processing, and managing individuals who commit misdemeanors while in behavioral crisis are discussed. Scientific novelty: for the first time, the work substantiated the conclusion that individuals involved in crisis-flagged incidents are arrested at a consistently higher rate; are more likely to be charged, taken into custody, and incarcerated; and are more likely to be female.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering the issues related to prevention and elimination crimes

Expansion in SL_d(Z/qZ), q arbitrary

Let S be a fixed finite symmetric subset of SL_d(Z), and assume that it generates a Zariski-dense subgroup G. We show that the Cayley graphs of pi_q(G) with respect to the generating set pi_q(S) form a family of expanders, where pi_q is the projection map Z->Z/qZ

On the Gannon-Lee Singularity Theorem in Higher Dimensions

The Gannon-Lee singularity theorems give well-known restrictions on the spatial topology of singularity-free (i.e., nonspacelike geodesically complete), globally hyperbolic spacetimes. In this paper, we revisit these classic results in the light of recent developments, especially the failure in higher dimensions of a celebrated theorem by Hawking on the topology of black hole horizons. The global hyperbolicity requirement is weakened, and we expand the scope of the main results to allow for the richer variety of spatial topologies which are likely to occur in higher-dimensional spacetimes.Comment: 13 pages, no figures, to appear in Class. Quantum Gra

Charged Rotating Kaluza-Klein Black Holes Generated by G2(2) Transformation

Applying the G_{2(2)} generating technique for minimal D=5 supergravity to the Rasheed black hole solution, we present a new rotating charged Kaluza-Klein black hole solution to the five-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Chern-Simons equations. At infinity, our solution behaves as a four-dimensional flat spacetime with a compact extra dimension and hence describes a Kaluza-Klein black hole. In particlar, the extreme solution is non-supersymmetric, which is contrast to a static case. Our solution has the limits to the asymptotically flat charged rotating black hole solution and a new charged rotating black string solution.Comment: 24 page

Expansion in perfect groups

Let Ga be a subgroup of GL_d(Q) generated by a finite symmetric set S. For an integer q, denote by Ga_q the subgroup of Ga consisting of the elements that project to the unit element mod q. We prove that the Cayley graphs of Ga/Ga_q with respect to the generating set S form a family of expanders when q ranges over square-free integers with large prime divisors if and only if the connected component of the Zariski-closure of Ga is perfect.Comment: 62 pages, no figures, revision based on referee's comments: new ideas are explained in more details in the introduction, typos corrected, results and proofs unchange