Pursuing Clean Energy Equitably

This is the final version of the report. Available from the publisher via the URL in this record.This paper explores the opportunities for a ‘just transition’ to low carbon and sustainable energy systems; one that addresses the current inequities in the distribution of energy benefits and their human and ecological costs. In order to prioritize policies that address energy poverty alleviation and sustainability concerns, national action and higher levels of international cooperation and coordination are required to steer public policy towards a broader range of public interests. This also implies re-directing the vast sums of private energy finance that currently serve a narrow set of interests. This paper considers how national and global energy governance must adapt and change to ensure a just transition to low carbon and sustainable energy systems. Creating a low carbon and sustainable energy transition will face significant challenges in overcoming opposition from a broad array of interest groups. The challenges of guiding a just transition are amplified by the relinquishing of government control over the energy sector in many countries and the current weak and fragmented state of global energy governance. The necessary changes in energy decision making will entail complex trade-offs and rebound effects that make strong, participatory and transparent institutional arrangements essential in order to govern such challenges equitably. In this respect, procedural justice is critical to achieving distributive justice and to creating a simultaneously rapid, sustainable and equitable transition to clean energy futures

Coherent coupling between surface plasmons and excitons in semiconductor nanocrystals

We present an experimental demonstration of strong coupling between a surface plasmon propagating on a planar silver substrate, and the lowest excited state of CdSe nanocrystals. Variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements demonstrated the formation of plasmon-exciton mixed states, characterized by a Rabi splitting of $\sim$ 82 meV at room temperature. Such a coherent interaction has the potential for the development of plasmonic non-linear devices, and furthermore, this system is akin to those studied in cavity quantum electrodynamics, thus offering the possibility to study the regime of strong light-matter coupling in semiconductor nanocrystals at easily accessible experimental conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

An examination of the precipitation delivery mechanisms for Dolleman Island, eastern Antarctic Peninsula

Copyright @ 2004 Wiley-BlackwellThe variability of size and source of significant precipitation events were studied at an Antarctic ice core drilling site: Dolleman Island (DI), located on the eastern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Significant precipitation events that occur at DI were temporally located in the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) reanalysis data set, ERA-40. The annual and summer precipitation totals from ERA-40 at DI both show significant increases over the reanalysis period. Three-dimensional backwards air parcel trajectories were then run for 5 d using the ECMWF ERA-15 wind fields. Cluster analyses were performed on two sets of these backwards trajectories: all days in the range 1979–1992 (the climatological time-scale) and a subset of days when a significant precipitation event occurred. The principal air mass sources and delivery mechanisms were found to be the Weddell Sea via lee cyclogenesis, the South Atlantic when there was a weak circumpolar trough (CPT) and the South Pacific when the CPT was deep. The occurrence of precipitation bearing air masses arriving via a strong CPT was found to have a significant correlation with the southern annular mode (SAM); however, the arrival of air masses from the same region over the climatological time-scale showed no such correlation. Despite the dominance in both groups of back trajectories of the westerly circulation around Antarctica, some other key patterns were identified. Most notably there was a higher frequency of lee cyclogenesis events in the significant precipitation trajectories compared to the climatological time-scale. There was also a tendency for precipitation trajectories to come from more northerly latitudes, mostly from 50–70°S. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found to have a strong influence on the mechanism by which the precipitation was delivered; the frequency of occurrence of precipitation from the east (west) of DI increased during El Niño (La Niña) events

Snow densification and recent accumulation along the iSTAR traverse, Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica

Neutron probe measurements of snow density from 22 sites in the Pine Island Glacier basin have been used to determine mean annual accumulation using an automatic annual-layer identification routine. A mean density profile which can be used to convert radar two-way-travel times to depth has been derived, and the effect of annual fluctuations in density on estimates of the depth of radar reflectors is shown to be insignificant, except very near the surface. Vertical densification rates have been derived from the neutron probe density profiles and from deeper firn core density profiles available at 9 of the sites. These rates are consistent with the rates predicted by the Herron and Langway model for stage 1 densification (by grain-boundary sliding, grain growth and intracrystalline deformation) and stage 2 densification (predominantly by sintering), except in a transition zone extending from ≈8 to ≈13 m from the surface in which 10–14% of the compaction occurs. Profiles of volumetric strain rate at each site show that in this transition zone the rates are consistent with the Arthern densification model. Comparison of the vertical densification rates and volumetric strain rates indicates that the expected relation to mean annual accumulation breaks down at high accumulation rates even when corrections are made for horizontal ice velocity divergence

Monitoring Ion Channel Function In Real Time Through Quantum Decoherence

In drug discovery research there is a clear and urgent need for non-invasive detection of cell membrane ion channel operation with wide-field capability. Existing techniques are generally invasive, require specialized nano structures, or are only applicable to certain ion channel species. We show that quantum nanotechnology has enormous potential to provide a novel solution to this problem. The nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre in nano-diamond is currently of great interest as a novel single atom quantum probe for nanoscale processes. However, until now, beyond the use of diamond nanocrystals as fluorescence markers, nothing was known about the quantum behaviour of a NV probe in the complex room temperature extra-cellular environment. For the first time we explore in detail the quantum dynamics of a NV probe in proximity to the ion channel, lipid bilayer and surrounding aqueous environment. Our theoretical results indicate that real-time detection of ion channel operation at millisecond resolution is possible by directly monitoring the quantum decoherence of the NV probe. With the potential to scan and scale-up to an array-based system this conclusion may have wide ranging implications for nanoscale biology and drug discovery.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Abordagem contextual nos capítulos de estequiometria e de soluções dos livros didáticos de Química aprovados pelo PNLD (Programa Nacional do Livro Didático - Brasil) /2012

A contextualização tem sido proposta no currículo escolar com o propósito de promover mudanças de comportamentos, atitudes e valores. Nessa abordagem, entende-se que o ensino de química deve se desenvolver de forma ampla, envolvendo também aspectos sociais, políticos, econômicos,ambientais e culturais, e não somente aspectos científicos. Tendo em vista a grande importância dada ao livro didático (LD) na prática docente, buscamos analisar a abordagem contextual nos capítulos de estequiometria e soluções nos LD de química aprovados pelo PNLD/2012. Os resultados mostraram que os autores dos LD analisados reconhecem a contextualização como elemento central para a formação da cidadania, porém a abordagem é diferente em cada obra. As leituras dos LD possibilitaram a identificação de alguns "níveis" de contextualização que percorreram quatro categorias de análise

Tackling the Mouse‐on‐Mouse Problem in Cochlear Immunofluorescence: A Simple Double‐Blocking Protocol for Immunofluorescent Labeling of Murine Cochlear Sections with Primary Mouse Antibodies

The mouse is the most widely used animal model in hearing research. Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescent staining of murine cochlear sections have, thus, remained a backbone of inner ear research. Since many primary antibodies are raised in mouse, the problem of "mouse-on-mouse" background arises due to the interaction between the anti-mouse secondary antibody and the native mouse immunoglobulins. Here, we describe the pattern of mouse-on-mouse background fluorescence in sections of the postnatal mouse cochlea. Furthermore, we describe a simple double-blocking immunofluorescence protocol to label mouse cochlear cryosections. The protocol contains a conventional blocking step with serum, and an additional blocking step with a commercially available anti-mouse IgG blocking reagent. This blocking technique virtually eliminates the "mouse-on-mouse" background in murine cochlear sections, while adding only a little time to the staining protocol. We provide detailed instructions and practical tips for tissue harvesting, processing, and immunofluorescence-labeling. Further protocol modifications are described, to shorten the duration of the protocol, based on the primary antibody incubation temperature. Finally, we demonstrate examples of immunofluorescence staining performed using different incubation times and various incubation temperatures with a commercially available mouse monoclonal primary antibody