Climate change adaptation and the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF): qualitative insights from policy implementation in the Asia-Pacific

Least developed countries often lack the requisite capacity to implement climate change adaptation projects. The Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) is a scheme where industrialized countries have (as of early 2016) disbursed $934.5 million in voluntary contributions, raised more than four times that amount in co-financing, and supported 213 adaptation projects across 51 least developed countries. But what sorts of challenges have arisen during implementation? Based on extensive field research in five least developed countries—Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, the Maldives, and Vanuatu—and original data collected from almost 150 research interviews, this article qualitatively explores both the benefits and challenges of LDCF projects in the Asia-Pacific. It finds that while LDCF projects do contribute to enhancing multiple types of infrastructural, institutional, and community-based adaptive capacity, they also suffer from uncertainty, a convoluted management structure, and an inability to fully respond to climate risks. Based on these findings, the study concludes that adaptation must be pursued as a multidimensional process; and that LDCF activities have tended to promote marginal rather than more radical or systematic transformations

Синтетические и растительные лекарственные средства с эстрогеноподобной активностью

Описаны синтетические и растительные соединения с эстрогеноподобной активностью. Рассмотрены механизмы их действия и возможности клинического применения.Описано синтетичні й рослинні сполуки з естрогеноподібною активністю. Розглянуто механізми їх дії та можливості клінічного використання.Synthetic and herbal compounds with estrogen-like activity are described. The mechanisms of their action and possibility of clinical application are discussed

On the Hydrodynamic Interaction of Shock Waves with Interstellar Clouds. II. The Effect of Smooth Cloud Boundaries on Cloud Destruction and Cloud Turbulence

The effect of smooth cloud boundaries on the interaction of steady planar shock waves with interstellar clouds is studied using a high-resolution local AMR technique with a second-order accurate axisymmetric Godunov hydrodynamic scheme. A 3D calculation is also done to confirm the results of the 2D ones. We consider an initially spherical cloud whose density distribution is flat near the cloud center and has a power-law profile in the cloud envelope. When an incident shock is transmitted into a smooth cloud, velocity gradients in the cloud envelope steepen the smooth density profile at the upstream side, resulting in a sharp density jump having an arc-like shape. Such a ``slip surface'' forms immediately when a shock strikes a cloud with a sharp boundary. For smoother boundaries, the formation of slip surface and therefore the onset of hydrodynamic instabilities are delayed. Since the slip surface is subject to the Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, the shocked cloud is eventually destroyed in $\sim 3-10$ cloud crushing times. After complete cloud destruction, small blobs formed by fragmentation due to hydrodynamic instabilities have significant velocity dispersions of the order of 0.1 $v_b$, where $v_b$ is the shock velocity in the ambient medium. This suggests that turbulent motions generated by shock-cloud interaction are directly associated with cloud destruction. The interaction of a shock with a cold HI cloud should lead to the production of a spray of small HI shreds, which could be related to the small cold clouds recently observed by Stanimirovic & Heiles (2005). The linewidth-size relation obtained from our 3D simulation is found to be time-dependent. A possibility for gravitational instability triggered by shock compression is also discussed.Comment: 62 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Ap

Shifting perspectives on coastal impacts and adaptation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports reflect evolving attitudes in adapting to sea-level rise by taking a systems approach and recognizing that multiple responses exist to achieve a less hazardous coast.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Phase Diagram of Disordered Vortices from London Langevin Simulations

We study the phase diagram of vortex matter in disordered type-II superconductors. We performed numerical simulations in the London Langevin approximation, using a new realistic representation of the disorder. At low magnetic fields we find a disentangled and dislocation free Bragg-glass regime. Increasing the field introduces disorder-driven entanglement in a discontinuous manner, leading to a vortex-glass phase, which subsequently melts into the vortex liquid. The obtained phase boundaries are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 8 postscript figures include