Society-wide scenarios for effective integration of Paris-aligned climate mitigation and adaptation in national and regional policy

Climate science (IPCC 2018) and economics (Emmerling et al. 2019; Burke, Hsiang, and Miguel 2015) indicates that achieving far earlier and deeper mitigation than pledged to date is likely now critical to effective climate action – particularly to ensure limits to adaptation are not breached. However, clear and coherent comparisons of national and regional climate action have been lacking. Therefore, here we summarise a benchmarking method (McMullin et al. 2019) to establish a prudent, fair share of the remaining global CO2 budget for any Party to the Paris Agreement. Using Ireland as a case study, we analyse current policy ambition relative to this benchmarked national CO2 quota, demonstrate early emergence of CO2 debt, and show tacit mitigation policy reliance on future large scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Toward society-wide scenarios for effective climate action, we further examine the crucial roles of non-CO2 mitigation and safeguarding land carbon stocks

Hustling, cycling, peacebuilding : narrating postwar reintegration through livelihood in Liberia

Ex-combatant youth originated the commercial motorcycling sector in Liberia and have played a dominant role in its development. This article collates key insights narrated by one of Liberia’s young ex-combatants-turned-commercial motorcyclists, Edwin Nyankoon, to build narrative accounts of peacebuilding around conceptualisation of youth livelihood, identity, and politics after war. The article contributes to diverse literatures on youth agency by emphasising the need for narrative and subject-led methodologies that anchor research questions and data analysis to research participants’ own language and narrated experiences of post-war. It applies insights about everyday peace to interpret hustling as bottom-up peacebuilding, in opposition to dominant top-down peacebuilding accounts of ex-combatants. These latter accounts largely fail to see youth actors as peacebuilding agents, constructing them instead as troublemakers and interpreting their livelihood activities in terms of criminality and threat. Additionally, it argues that hustling also constitutes a peacebuilding style. More than a coping strategy or an indicator of peace, hustling-as-peacebuilding-style is performative: relational, embodied, contradictory, and recognizable to its adherents as peace-promoting even if (and arguably because) outsiders construct it as peace-negating. This analysis problematises agency, social relations, gendered identity, and collective security as they relate to ex-combatant and conflict-affected youth during peace processes.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Power save-based adaptive multimedia delivery mechanism

The use of mobile computing devices has become more and more common as such devices have become more and more affordable and powerful. With increases in throughput speed and decreases in device size, wireless multimedia streaming to battery powered mobile devices has become widespread. However, the battery power has not kept up with the advances in technology and has not increased so rapidly. This deficiency in battery power provides motivation for development of more energy efficient multimedia streaming methods and procedures. As such, an adaptive delivery mechanism is proposed to take into account the various drains on battery life and adjust rates appropriately when the battery is low. This paper proposes a Power Save-based Adaptive Multimedia Delivery Mechanism (PS-AMy) which makes a seamless multimedia adaptation based on the current energy level and packet loss, in order to enable the multimedia streaming to last longer while maintaining acceptable user-perceived quality levels. The proposed mechanism is evaluated by simulation using Network Simulator (NS-2)

Occurrence of a Colorful Prejuvenile Mountain Mullet (Agonostomus monticola) in Brackish Water of Montserrat, Lesser Antilles

Brightly colored prejuvenile Mountain mullet (Agonostomus monticola) immigrating into brackish water on Montserrat are described. Mugilidae may be unique among Caribbean amphidromous fishes in having a brightly colored pelagic marine stage

Governor Patrick Signs Bill to Control Health Care Costs

Surveys of foliar endophytes from the Acadian forest region over the past three decades have identified numerous phylogenetically diverse fungi producing natural products toxic to forest pests and diseases. The life histories of some conifer endophytes can be restricted to plant foliage or may include saprotrophic phases on other plants tissues or even alternate hosts. Considering the potentially broad host preferences of conifer endophytes we explored fungi isolated from understory species and their metabolites as part of an ongoing investigation of fungal biodiversity from the Acadian forest. We report a hitherto unidentified Xylariomycetidae species isolated from symptomatic Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) leaves and mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) collected in coastal southern New Brunswick, Canada. Morphological and phylogenetic evidence demonstrated the unknown species was a novel Synnemapestaloides (Sporocadaceae) species, described here as Syn. ericacearum. A preliminary screening assay indicated that the culture filtrate extract of the new species was potently antifungal towards the biotrophic pathogen Microbotryum violaceum, warranting an investigation of its natural products. Two natural products possessing a rare 1,3-benzodioxin-4-one scaffold, synnemadoxins A-B (1-2), and their postulated precursor, synnemadiacid A (3), were characterized as new structures and assessed for antimicrobial activity. All isolated compounds elicited in vitro inhibitory antifungal activity towards M. violaceum at 2.3 μg mL-1 and moderate antibiotic activity. Further, the characterization of synnemadoxins A-B provided a perspective on the biosynthesis of some related 1,3-benzodioxin-4-ones produced by other fungi within the Xylariales

High‐contiguity genome assembly of the chemosynthetic gammaproteobacterial endosymbiont of the cold seep tubeworm Lamellibrachia barhami

Symbiotic relationships between vestimentiferan tubeworms and chemosynthetic Gammaproteobacteria build the foundations of many hydrothermal vent and hydrocarbon seep ecosystems in the deep sea. The association between the vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila and its endosymbiont Candidatus Endoriftia persephone has become a model system for symbiosis research in deep‐sea vestimentiferans, while markedly fewer studies have investigated symbiotic relationships in other tubeworm species, especially at cold seeps. Here we sequenced the endosymbiont genome of the tubeworm Lamellibrachia barhami from a cold seep in the Gulf of California, using short‐ and long‐read sequencing technologies in combination with Hi‐C and Dovetail Chicago libraries. Our final assembly had a size of ~4.17 MB, a GC content of 54.54%, 137X coverage, 4153 coding sequences, and a CheckM completeness score of 97.19%. A single scaffold contained 99.51% of the genome. Comparative genomic analyses indicated that the L. barhami symbiont shares a set of core genes and many metabolic pathways with other vestimentiferan symbionts, while containing 433 unique gene clusters that comprised a variety of transposases, defence‐related genes and a lineage‐specific CRISPR/Cas3 system. This assembly represents the most contiguous tubeworm symbiont genome resource to date and will be particularly valuable for future comparative genomic studies investigating structural genome evolution, physiological adaptations and host‐symbiont communication in chemosynthetic animal‐microbe symbioses

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in myelodysplasia.

Antibodies to neutrophil cytoplasmic antigens (ANCA) are good serological markers for patients with mainly vasculitic conditions. Two main types of ANCAs have been detected, the first termed cytoplasmic antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (cANCA) are mainly associated with patients with Wegener's granulomatosis, the other termed perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (pANCA) are mainly associated with patients with renal vasculitis, rheumatic and collagen disorders. These antibodies are against various constituents of neutrophil granules. In patients with myelodysplasia, defects in normal granulocyte development are seen. We report a series of twelve patients with myelodysplasia of whom at least four showed a low titre and one a high titre of pANCA. Two of these patients also had demonstrable activity against myeloperoxidase (MPO). None of these patients had any evidence of systemic or cutaneous vasculitis or of any autoimmune disorder. There was no pANCA positivity in an age matched control group

A First Phylogenetic Assessment of \u3ci\u3eDictyonemo\u3c/i\u3e s.lat in Southwestern North America Reveals Three New Basidiolichens, Described in Honor James D. Lawrey

Three species of lichenized basidiomycetes in the Dictyonema clade from southeastern North America are described as new to science: Cyphellostereum georgianum, C. jamesianum and Dictyonema lawreyi, all with a crustose-filamentous growth form. Based on ITS sequences, the species form well-supported monophyletic clades in a phylogeny and are represented by at least two specimens each. They are also distinguishable by morphological and anatomical characters. These new findings emphasize the importance of lichenological studies in North America, especially in historically understudied taxonomic groups, such as basidiolichens. This study is dedicated to James D. Lawrey on the occasion of his 70th birthda