The Influence of Underlying Stresses from Environmental Hazards on Resilience in Bangladesh: A System View

Abstract: Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, while its people also suffer from a range of environmental hazards linked to the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases. These diseases are responsible for increasing morbidity and mortality and lead to other stresses within the population. Such stresses create continuous impacts on the health and well-being of the population, compounding their vulnerability and inhibiting their capacity to cope with frequent event-related shocks, such as floods and drought. A systems approach is taken to examine four important environmental hazards in Bangladesh—arsenic contamination of drinking water, arsenic transmission through the food chain, indoor air quality, and air pollution. A review of these hazards is presented in a conceptual framework that links human well-being with the key system components of infrastructure, institutions, knowledge, and behavior. This reveals key underlying factors between the hazards and uncovers system structures that can lead to more effective hazard mitigation, and the establishment of strategic intervention points. The article concludes that elimination of these continuous stresses will only come about through the culmination of multiple interventions over time, undertaken in an iterative manner that builds on the continual advancement of hazard understanding. The role of individual behaviors, together with factors such as risk awareness and perception of the hazards, has been identified as crucial for achieving successful mitigation solutions. Improved knowledge of the hazards, public awareness, and government accountability are focus points to reduce population exposure and enhance response capacity

Negro Segregation in Nebraska Schools — 1860 to 1870

During the October 1952 Term of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court heard oral argument in five cases involving attacks under the Fourteenth Amendment upon the practice of segregating Negroes in public schools in various states. On June 8, 1953, the Supreme Court restored the cases to the docket and assigned them for reargument on October 12, 1953, which date was later extended to December 7, 1953, at the request of the Attorney General of the United States. The Court requested counsel to discuss particularly five questions.\u27 The first two were: 1. What evidence is there that the Congress which submitted and the State legislatures and conventions which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment contemplated or did not contemplate, understood or did not understand, that it would abolish segregation in public schools? 2. If neither the Congress in submitting nor the States in ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment understood that compliance with it would require immediate abolition of segregation in public schools, was it nevertheless the understanding of the framers of the Amendment a. that future Congresses might, in the exercise of their power under section 5 of the Amendment, abolish such segregation, or b. that it would be within the judicial power, in light of future conditions, to construe the amendment as abolishing such segregation of its own force? In order to accomplish the large research task necessary to answer these questions, counsel for the Negro petitioners secured assistance from persons in each of the thirty-six states which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It was requested that the research cover such facts as: whether or not public schools existed in the state at the time the Amendment was ratified; what treatment was accorded Negroes under the statutes and constitutions at that time; what legislative history there was concerning the actual ratification of the Amendment by the state; and the situation with respect to Negroes immediately after the state ratified the Amendment. The writers undertook to answer these questions for the State of Nebraska and the following is the result of their research. I. Introduction II. Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment III. Constitution of Nebraska IV. School Laws V. Conclusio

Negro Segregation in Nebraska Schools — 1860 to 1870

During the October 1952 Term of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court heard oral argument in five cases involving attacks under the Fourteenth Amendment upon the practice of segregating Negroes in public schools in various states. On June 8, 1953, the Supreme Court restored the cases to the docket and assigned them for reargument on October 12, 1953, which date was later extended to December 7, 1953, at the request of the Attorney General of the United States. The Court requested counsel to discuss particularly five questions.\u27 The first two were: 1. What evidence is there that the Congress which submitted and the State legislatures and conventions which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment contemplated or did not contemplate, understood or did not understand, that it would abolish segregation in public schools? 2. If neither the Congress in submitting nor the States in ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment understood that compliance with it would require immediate abolition of segregation in public schools, was it nevertheless the understanding of the framers of the Amendment a. that future Congresses might, in the exercise of their power under section 5 of the Amendment, abolish such segregation, or b. that it would be within the judicial power, in light of future conditions, to construe the amendment as abolishing such segregation of its own force? In order to accomplish the large research task necessary to answer these questions, counsel for the Negro petitioners secured assistance from persons in each of the thirty-six states which ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It was requested that the research cover such facts as: whether or not public schools existed in the state at the time the Amendment was ratified; what treatment was accorded Negroes under the statutes and constitutions at that time; what legislative history there was concerning the actual ratification of the Amendment by the state; and the situation with respect to Negroes immediately after the state ratified the Amendment. The writers undertook to answer these questions for the State of Nebraska and the following is the result of their research. I. Introduction II. Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment III. Constitution of Nebraska IV. School Laws V. Conclusio

Consequences of fast ion driven modes in MAST

As we enter the era of burning plasmas in next step devices such as ITER, the confinement of fusion born a-particles for sufficient duration that they impart their energy to the bulk fuel ions in order to maintain the thermonuclear burn is an important challenge in magnetically confined fusion. Fast ion driven plasma instabilities can cause significant redistribution and loss of the suprathermal energetic particle (EP) population, degrading performance. With dimensionless parameters such as the ratio of fast ion to thermal ion beta (Bfi/Bth ~50%) and the relative fast ion velocity to the Alfvén velocity (vfi/vA ~2) similar to those anticipated in ITER, the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) provides the ideal place to study such instabilities. During periods of Neutral Beam Injection (NBI) heating, 'fishbone' instabilities are observed that coincide with a reduction to the fusion rate measured by drops in the neutron emission. Via experimental observations, fishbones are identified to be low frequency internal kink modes that burst in amplitude and chirp downwards in frequency and are synonymous with high power tokamak discharges on a wide range of devices around the world. This thesis provides a detailed analysis of what occurs during a single fishbone event. Experiments have been performed on MAST that have been interpreted using fast ion plasma physics codes. Modelling of the instability shows a resulting flux of fast ions away from the core, providing evidence at a fundamental level that they drive sufficient levels of anomalous fast ion transport to explain experimental observations. The diffusivity is shown to scale with mode amplitude, and the effect of altering other fishbone parameters within the scope of the experimental observations have been explained by identifying the extent of the fast ion population that is resonant with the mode. Resonant surfaces that sweep through phase space during the chirp are presented that coincide with populous domains of the EP distribution function; it is the gradients in this distribution function that define the drive and or damping of the instability. Via the use of synthetic diagnostics, changes to the radial profiles of neutron emissivity caused by a fishbone are shown to match those measured experimentally

Copper N-heterocyclic carbenes: novel electrochemical synthesis, stabilisation of variable oxidation states and unusual carbene reactivity

This thesis concerns the synthesis, structural characterisation and reactivity of a range of novel organometallic complexes. The research primarily focuses on N-heterocyclic carbenes as ligands, and their coordination to copper cations. A novel electrochemical synthetic procedure for the synthesis of CuI-NHC complexes is described. It was found that this procedure was suitable for the synthesis of a wide range of CuI-NHC complexes, containing either bulky, non-bulky or base sensitive functional groups. Furthermore, the synthetic procedure was found to be highly selective, producing [Cu(NHC)X]- type complexes when X is a coordinating anion, and [Cu(NHC)2]X-type complexes when X is a non-coordinating anion. The structural chemistry of CuI-NHC complexes containing pendant N-allyl groups was explored, with the resultant complexes displaying an array of coordination geometries about the CuI centres. By careful modification of these ligands, the first example of a CuI -NHC complex containing a CuI-alkene interaction was observed. The coordination chemistry of NHC ligands containing pyridyl substituents, which act as ancillary donors, was investigated. CuI -NHC complexes containing these ligands were found to be catalytically competent in an Ullmann-type etherification reaction. Additionally, exposure of solutions of some of these CuI-NHC complexes to atmospheric conditions allowed the crystallographic characterisation of rare examples of CuII-NHC complexes. Finally, the rational synthesis of a range of unusual CuII-NHC complexes was performed, with the resulting complexes being structurally characterised. It was found that, under certain circumstances, oxidative decomposition of the NHC ligand within the coordination sphere of a copper centre can occur. The formation of 2-haloimidazolium and C-C coupled bis-imidazolium salts, via oxidative degradation, was investigated using a combined experimental and computational study