Urban configurations of carbon neutrality: Insights from the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance

This paper examines configurations of carbon neutrality in the building and energy sector as expressed in the urban governance documents of the members of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA). ‘Carbon neutrality’ is a mutable idea, which makes it unclear what kinds of future urban systems are imagined. As self-identified pioneers of deep decarbonization, the CNCA members are constructing ideas about what carbon neutral means and how urban systems should be changed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In this paper, climate governance policy documents provide a window to understand how these carbon neutral imaginaries are being constructed. The analysis draws on discourse analysis and textual network analysis to unpack the sociotechnical configurations that are planned to be mobilized to constitute carbon neutral built environments. Concept map visualizations are used to scrutinize planned configurations of objects (e.g. solar photovoltaics, district energy and energy efficiency technology) and policy instruments (e.g. energy use benchmarking and urban planning tools). The analysis shows three key building and energy configurations: (1) The District Energy City, (2) The Zero Net Energy City and (3) The Natural Gas Transition City. Furthermore, the findings demonstrate that urban imaginaries of carbon neutrality are incorporating complex configurations of socio-technical objects while, at the same time, distinct socio-technical configurations are being favoured in individual places. These configurations inform socio-technical imaginaries that will continue to drive policy outcomes over time

The Geopolitics of Climate Knowledge Mobilization:Transdisciplinary Research at the Science–Policy Interface(s) in the Americas

Climate change and sustainability science have become more international in scope and transdisciplinary in nature, in response to growing expectations that scientific knowledge directly informs collective action and transformation. In this article, we move past idealized models of the science–policy interface to examine the social processes and geopolitical dynamics of knowledge mobilization. We argue that sociotechnical imaginaries of transdisciplinary research, deployed in parallel to “universal” regimes of evidence-based decision-making from the global North, conceal how international collaborations of scientists and societal actors actually experience knowledge mobilization, its systemic barriers, and its paths to policy action. Through ethnographic study of a transdisciplinary research program in the Americas, coupled with in-depth analysis of Colombia, we reveal divergences in how participants envision and experience knowledge mobilization and identify persistent disparities that diminish the capacity of researchers to influence decision-making and fit climate knowledge within broader neoliberal development paradigms. Results of the study point to a plurality of science–policy interface(s), each shaped by national sociotechnical imaginaries, development priorities, and local social orders. We conclude that a geopolitical approach to transdisciplinary science is necessary to understand how climate and sustainability knowledge circulates unevenly in a world marked by persistent inequality and dominance. </jats:p

Impact of Sb and Na Doping on the Surface Electronic Landscape of Cu2ZnSnS4 Thin Films

Open-circuit voltage deficiency is the key limiting factor in Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin-film solar cells, which is commonly associated with band tails and deep gap states arising from elemental disorder. The introduction of dopants such as Na and Sb has led to improvement in device performance, yet their effects on the optoelectronic properties of CZTS are yet to be fully elucidated. In this Letter, we unraveled the effect of Sb and Na:Sb co-doping on the surface energy landscape of solution-processed CZTS films employing energy-filtered photoelectron emission microscopy. In the absence of the additives, 150 nm resolution photoemission maps reveal oscillations in the local effective work function as well as areas of low photoemission energy threshold. The introduction of dopants substantially reshapes the photoemission maps, which we rationalize in terms of Cu:Zn and Sn disorder. Finally, we establish unprecedented correlations between the photoemission landscape of thin films and the performance of over 200 devices

A Community Needs Assessment for a Camp Activity Center for People with Disabilities

This paper describes a needs assessment of a camp for individuals with disabilities. Utilizing a combination of focus groups and interviews, the needs assessment explores the benefits of additional space and services of an activity center and sensory room, the desire for additional equipment, the value of occupational therapy services, and the potential benefit these additions may have for the surrounding populations within the community. The participants include administrative staff, counselors, campers, and other key informants who maintain knowledge of the topics pertaining to the camp. The results revealed three major themes including marketing, staffing, and indoor space. It was determined through the focus groups and interviews that additional space is needed for indoor activities at Indian Trails Camp. An activity center would be beneficial for multiple reasons; including an improvement to the overall facility and the programs it can offer to the current population, as well as the surrounding community. The implications of the findings for building the activity and sensory room, adding equipment, and hiring an occupational therapist are discussed

Nimbus 7 solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV) ozone products user's guide

Three ozone tape products from the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) experiment aboard Nimbus 7 were archived at the National Space Science Data Center. The experiment measures the fraction of incoming radiation backscattered by the Earth's atmosphere at 12 wavelengths. In-flight measurements were used to monitor changes in the instrument sensitivity. Total column ozone is derived by comparing the measurements with calculations of what would be measured for different total ozone amounts. The altitude distribution is retrieved using an optimum statistical technique for the inversion. The estimated initial error in the absolute scale for total ozone is 2 percent, with a 3 percent drift over 8 years. The profile error depends on latitude and height, smallest at 3 to 10 mbar; the drift increases with increasing altitude. Three tape products are described. The High Density SBUV (HDSBUV) tape contains the final derived products - the total ozone and the vertical ozone profile - as well as much detailed diagnostic information generated during the retrieval process. The Compressed Ozone (CPOZ) tape contains only that subset of HDSBUV information, including total ozone and ozone profiles, considered most useful for scientific studies. The Zonal Means Tape (ZMT) contains daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly averages of the derived quantities over 10 deg latitude zones

Preparing for and Responding to Disturbance: Examples from the Forest Sector in Sweden and Canada

Coping or adaptation following large-scale disturbance may depend on the political system and its preparedness and policy development in relation to risks. Adaptive or foresight planning is necessary in order to account and plan for potential risks that may increase or take place concurrently with climate change. Forests constitute relevant examples of large-scale renewable resource systems that have been directly affected by recent environmental and social changes, and where different levels of management may influence each other. This article views disturbances in the forest sectors of Sweden and Canada, two large forest nations with comparable forestry experiences, in order to elucidate the preparedness and existing responses to multiple potential stresses. The article concludes that the two countries are exposed to stresses that indicate the importance of the governing and institutional system particularly with regard to multi-level systems including federal and EU levels. While economic change largely results in privatization of risk onto individual companies and their economic resources (in Canada coupled with a contestation of institutional systems and equity in these), storm and pest outbreaks in particular challenge institutional capacities at administrative levels, within the context provided by governance and tenure systems.In Sweden, funding from the research agency FORMAS, the MISTRA Arctic Futures programme, and the Future Forests programme (funded by research agency MISTRA, the forest industries, Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) as well as from the EU for data collection is acknowledged. Ryan Bullock acknowledges funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and by the Mistra Arctic Futures programme for preparing this paper.https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/2/2/50

Proteolytic cleavage of the extracellular domain affects signaling of parathyroid hormone 1 receptor

Parathyroid hormone 1 receptor (PTH1R) is a member of the class B family of G protein-coupled receptors, which are characterized by a large extracellular domain required for ligand binding. We have previously shown that the extracellular domain of PTH1R is subject to metalloproteinase cleavage in vivo that is regulated by ligand-induced receptor trafficking and leads to impaired stability of PTH1R. In this work, we localize the cleavage site in the first loop of the extracellular domain using amino-terminal protein sequencing of purified receptor and by mutagenesis studies. We further show, that a receptor mutant not susceptible to proteolytic cleavage exhibits reduced signaling to G(s) and increased activation of G(q) compared to wild-type PTH1R. These findings indicate that the extracellular domain modulates PTH1R signaling specificity, and that its cleavage affects receptor signaling

Profile shape dependence in backscattered ultraviolet satellite retrievals of total ozone

Total ozone operational algorithms use climatological mean ozone profiles. When the actual ozone profiles have significantly different shapes versus the climatology and the solar zenith angles are large, retrieved total ozone will have an error. Recalibrated SBUV profiles are used to estimate this error. Preliminary results suggest that, on the average, the change and variation in significant profiles shapes can to a large degree be estimated by the SBUV derived profiles. Preliminary results suggest the average error in the report algorithm ozone trend (trend in reported ozone) from profile shape is relatively small during the north hemisphere winter (less than 2 percent) for solar zenith angles less than 82 degrees (for 60 degrees North Latitude)

West Nile virus transmission in resident birds, Dominican Republic

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol9no10/03-0222.htmWe report West Nile virus (WNV) activity in the Dominican Republic for the first time. Specific anti-WNV antibodies were detected in 5 (15%) of 33 resident birds sampled at one location in November 2002. One seropositive bird was <4 months old, indicating a recent infection