How young adults cope with loneliness: a study of London’s most deprived boroughs

There is growing recognition that young adults of low socioeconomic status are among the loneliest in the United Kingdom. However, there has been a dearth of qualitative research exploring how they cope with their loneliness. Using a novel free association technique, this study sought to explore how young adults (n = 48) in London’s most deprived areas cope with feeling lonely. A thematic analysis, informed by an inductive approach, identified six key themes. Seeking connection, avoidance, seeking support and cognitive strategies were most prevalent. Meaning-focused coping and distraction were also identified, albeit less often. Overall, there were diverse ways of coping within and across respondents and important differences were found between the genders. The findings call for the early identification of those at risk of persistent avoidance behaviours and for interventions that provide meaningful leisure activities, with mutual goals in communities, alongside the strengthening of support and authenticity in relationships

Can extreme experiences enhance creativity? The case of the underwater nightclub

Creativity is a valuable commodity. Research has revealed some identifying characteristics of creative people and some of the emotional states that can bring out the most creativity in all of us. It has also been shown that the long-term experience of different cultures and lifestyles that is the result of travel and immigration can also enhance creativity. However, the role of one-off, extreme, or unusual experiences on creativity has not been directly observed before. In part, that may be because, by their very nature, such experiences are very difficult to bring into the laboratory. Here, we brought the tools and empirical methods of the laboratory into the wild, measuring the psychological effects of a unique multisensory experience: an underwater nightclub. We showed - with fully randomized and experimentally controlled conditions - that such an experience boosted measures of divergent thinking in participants. This demonstrates that one element of creativity can be directly enhanced by unusual situations, and that experimental tools of psychology can be used to investigate a range of consumer experiences

Potencial técnico e econômico para a produção de Fischer-Tropsch Diesel a partir de biomassa (FT-BTL) associada à captura de carbono no Brasil

In order to deal with the criticality of diesel fuel supply, due to a refining system incapable of attending the growing demand and the ever more restrictive specifications in act, the deployment of high quality biomass based diesel stands relevant to the national framework. This study aims to identify the potential for the deployment of diesel biofuel production based on biomass thermochemical conversion through Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis in Brazil. This study conducted technical and economic analysis of the selected technological route, in order to estimate in what extension and at what costs could biomass based diesel contribute to the national diesel supply, and to the promotion of emission reductions in the energy sector and the transportation subsector. This study identified a theoretical potential of biomass based diesel production capable of attending 11,9% of diesel supply, and 72,4% of diesel imports. A clear advantage of this route is the fact that it is easy to add carbon capture, which was evaluated as intrinsic to the process. Furthermore, this study argues that, even if not cost-competitive without the necessary climate and energy policies, the innovative technological route offers important contributions to the reduction of the dependency on imports, resulting in positive impacts over the Brazilian commercial balance.Para lidar com a criticidade da oferta, verificada em função de um parque refinador que não acompanhou o crescimento da demanda e das cada vez mais restritivas especificações em vigência, o desenvolvimento de diesel biocombustível de alta qualidade mostra-se relevante para o cenário nacional. O objetivo deste estudo é identificar o potencial de desenvolvimento da produção de diesel biocombustível a partir da conversão termoquímica da biomassa via Síntese de Fischer-Tropsch no Brasil. Foram conduzidas avaliações técnicas e econômicas da rota tecnológica selecionada, com o ensejo de estimar em que medida e a que custos a produção desse biocombustível seria capaz de contribuir para a oferta de diesel no país, além de promover reduções no teor de emissões relativos ao setor energético e subsetor de transportes. Identificou-se um potencial teórico de produção de diesel biocombustível capaz de atender 11,9% da demanda e 72,4% do teor de importações. Uma vantagem desta rota é a facilidade de incorporar-lhe a captura de carbono, que se mostrou intrínseca ao processo. Verificou-se ainda que, embora a tecnologia inovadora não se mostre custo-competitiva sem o incentivo de políticas climáticas e energéticas, existe potencial importante de contribuição para redução da crescente dependência de importações, gerando impactos positivos sobre a balança comercial brasileira

Filamentous phage associated with recent pandemic strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

A group of pandemic strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus has recently appeared in Asia and North America. We demonstrate that a filamentous phage is specifically associated with the pandemic V. parahaemolyticus strains. An open reading frame unique to the phage is a useful genetic marker to identify these strains

Promising climate progress

The global climate goals of the Paris Agreement will have to be met through action at the national level. So how do existing national plans and pledges stack up? One of the leading efforts to answer this question is through the Exploring National and Global Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ENGAGE) Project. Within ENGAGE, a collaboration of international groups is calculating how national policies would affect global emissions

Climate policy and the SDGs agenda: how does near-term action on nexus SDGs influence the achievement of long-term climate goals?

The sustainable development goals (SDGs) represent the global ambition to accelerate sustainable development. Several SDGs are directly related to climate change and policies aiming to mitigate it. This includes, among others, the set of SDGs that directly influence the climate, land, energy, and water (CLEW) nexus (SDGs 2, 6, 7, 13, 15). This study aims at understanding the synergies and trade-offs between climate policy and the SDGs agenda: how does near-term action on SDGs influence long-term climate goals? Based on a multi-model comparison, we evaluate three scenarios: (i) reference; (ii) climate mitigation; and (iii) a CLEW nexus SDGs scenario. We find clear positive effects of combining the climate and the sustainable development agendas. Notably, healthier diets, with reduced meat consumption, have strong co-benefits for climate, with positive effects across multiple SDGs: improvements in food security, reductions in air pollution and water stress, and improvements in biodiversity conservation. Such positive outcomes are prominent in the Global South, where regions typically at higher risk of food and energy insecurity and other environmental stresses (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America) benefit from a shorter term agenda focusing not only on the climate but also on the other sustainable development dimensions. However, trade-offs are also observed (e.g. increases in the prices of food and electricity), especially in the dynamics of land and the food systems, highlighting the importance of exploring policy synergies: if individually applied, some measures can negatively impact other sustainability goals, while taking into consideration the nexus interactions can reduce trade-offs and increase co-benefits. Finally, near-term action on SDGs can help speed up the transition towards the long-term climate goals, reducing the reliance on negative emissions options. In 2100, the SDG scenario in significantly less reliant on carbon dioxide removals both from AFOLU and the energy system

BLOEM: A spatially explicit model of bioenergy and carbon capture and storage, applied to Brazil

Bioenergy could play a major role in decarbonizing energy systems in the context of the Paris Agreement. Large-scale bioenergy deployment could be related to sustainability issues and requires major infrastructure investments. It, therefore, needs to be studied carefully. The Bioenergy and Land Optimization Spatially Explicit Model (BLOEM) presented here allows for assessing different bioenergy pathways while encompassing various dimensions that influence their optimal deployment. In this study, BLOEM was applied to the Brazilian context by coupling it with the Brazilian Land Use and Energy Systems (BLUES) model. This allowed investigating the most cost-effective ways of attending future bioenergy supply projections and studying the role of recovered degraded pasture lands in improving land availability in a sustainable and competitive manner. The results show optimizing for limiting deforestation and minimizing logistics costs results in different outcomes. It also indicates that recovering degraded pasture lands is attractive from both logistics and climate perspectives. The systemic approach of BLOEM provides spatial results, highlighting the trade-offs between crop allocation, land use and the logistics dynamics between production, conversion, and demand, providing valuable insights for regional and national climate policy design. This makes it a useful tool for mapping sustainable bioenergy value chain pathways

ENGAGE Summary for Policymakers

As the world faces the risks of dangerous climate change, policymakers, industry and civil society leaders are counting on Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) to inform and guide strategies to deliver on the objectives of the Paris Agreement (PA) and subsequent agreements. The Exploring National and Global Actions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ENGAGE) project has responded to this challenge by engaging these stakeholders in co-producing a new generation of global and national decarbonization pathways

Reducing sectoral hard to abate emissions to limit reliance of Carbon Dioxide Removal in 1.5°C scenarios

Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas targets is often achieved by compensating residual greenhouse gas emissions in the hard to abate (HtA) sectors, with carbon dioxide removal (CDR) options. However, large-scale application of CDR may lead to environmental, technical and social concerns. The extent to which residual emissions can be reduced in the industry, agriculture, buildings and transport sector is analysed based on integrated assessment of scenarios with ambitious measures in the HtA sectors. Two scenarios that explore demand and technology-focused approaches show that by reducing residual emissions, the CDR ceiling can be significantly lowered (23-30%) compared to reference in the net-zero year. The agriculture sector plays a critical role in this given the large share of residual emissions. The additional measures allow to create a 1.5°C scenario in which crop-based bioenergy use is limited to 40 EJ/yr, therefore within sustainable limits, and afforestation can be limited to abandoned cropland and grassland