Global and local economic impacts of climate change in Syria and options for adaptation:

There is broad consensus among scientists that climate change is altering weather patterns around the world. However, economists are only beginning to develop tools that allow for the quantification of such weather changes on countries' economies and people. This paper presents a modeling suite that links the downscaling of global climate models, crop modeling, global economic modeling, and subnational-level computable equilibrium modeling. Important to note is that this approach allows for decomposing the potential global and local economic effects on countries, including various economic sectors and different household groups. We apply this modeling suite to Syria, a relevant case study given the country's location in a region that is consistently projected to be among those hit hardest by climate change. Despite a certain degree of endogenous adaptation, local impacts of climate change (through declining yields) are likely to affect Syria beyond the agricultural sector and farmers and also reduce economy-wide growth and incomes of urban households in the long term. The overall effects of global climate change (through higher food prices) are also negative, but some farmers can reap the benefit of higher prices. Combining local and global climate change scenarios shows welfare losses across all rural and urban household groups of between 1.6 – 2.8 percent annually, whereas the poorest household groups are the hardest hit. Finally, while there is some evidence that droughts may become more frequent in the future, it is clear that even without an increase in frequency, drought impacts will continue to put a significant burden on Syria's economy and people. Action to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and variability should to be taken on the global and local level. A global action plan for improving food security and better integration of climate change in national development strategies, agricultural and rural policies, and disaster risk management and social protection policies will be keys for improving the resilience of countries and people to climate change.Climate change, Development, drought, Growth, Poverty,

Engaged Service Learning Shapes Students’ Individual Identities, Fostering Community Stewardship

Service learning creates a space for transformative learning to occur, employing a framework that unites practice and theory with reflection. Service learning that gives students a sense of responsibility for outcomes and is perceived as significant enhances student efficacy. This integrative work meaningfully connects students to a deeper understanding of academia, the community, and personal identity. The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) has a Service Learning Academy (SLA) that facilitates service learning projects. We analyzed qualitative responses of open-ended questions collected from a post-survey given to UNO students enrolled in a service learning course in the spring or fall semesters of 2019. The open-ended questions gave students the opportunity to share how their service learning experience impacted their relationship to and perceptions of academia and their community. The following themes emerged from student responses and revealed a transformative service learning experience: expanded awareness of social issues and community resources, deepened sense of civic responsibility, increased connection to the community, improved self-efficacy, and solidified career choice. Beyond shaping identity, students experience a greater sense of belonging and stewardship to their community. Giving students the opportunity to experience service learning allows them to share their talents and build relationships in a real-world setting and explore their identity within a larger context. This instills a greater level of confidence in the work they do on campus and within the community

Boo - Hoo - Hoo : You\u27re Gonna Cry When I\u27m Gone

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3041/thumbnail.jp

Milwaukee

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2115/thumbnail.jp

Fatigue Performance: Asphalt Binder versus Mixture versus Full-Scale Pavements

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) built 12 asphalt pavements in 1993 to validate Superpave tests and specifications used to measure the rutting and fatigue cracking performances of hot-mix asphalts and asphalt binders. Each pavement had four test sites. These sites were tested for either rutting or fatigue cracking using the FHWA’s Accelerated Loading Facility (ALF). The main objective of the study documented in this paper was to compare the fatigue performance results from laboratory bending beam fatigue tests to the ALF fatigue cracking data obtained for these sites from lanes 1 through 4. The four lanes consisted of two asphalt pavement layer thicknesses (100 and 200 mm) and two asphalt binders (PG 58-34 and PG 64-22). Each lane was tested at three temperatures 10, 19, and 28°C. Another objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between the asphalt binder parameter for intermediate temperature performance (G*sinδ) and asphalt pavement fatigue life. Findings of this study showed that a relatively good correlation was obtained between the ALF pavement fatigue life and the asphalt mixture fatigue life from the strain-controlled bending beam fatigue tests. Comparison of the fatigue results at the three test temperatures showed rational trends with the longest fatigue life at 28°C and the shortest fatigue life at 10°C. Fatigue power models at these test temperatures were also obtained for asphalt mixtures produced using the two asphalt binders

In situ accretion of gaseous envelopes on to planetary cores embedded in evolving protoplanetary discs

The core accretion hypothesis posits that planets with significant gaseous envelopes accreted them from their protoplanetary discs after the formation of rocky/icy cores. Observations indicate that such exoplanets exist at a broad range of orbital radii, but it is not known whether they accreted their envelopes in situ, or originated elsewhere and migrated to their current locations. We consider the evolution of solid cores embedded in evolving viscous discs that undergo gaseous envelope accretion in situ with orbital radii in the range 0.1–10 au. Additionally, we determine the long-term evolution of the planets that had no runaway gas accretion phase after disc dispersal. We find the following. (i) Planets with 5 M⊕ cores never undergo runaway accretion. The most massive envelope contained 2.8 M⊕ with the planet orbiting at 10 au. (ii) Accretion is more efficient on to 10 M⊕ and 15 M⊕ cores. For orbital radii ap ≥ 0.5 au, 15 M⊕ cores always experienced runaway gas accretion. For ap ≥ 5 au, all but one of the 10 M⊕ cores experienced runaway gas accretion. No planets experienced runaway growth at ap = 0.1 au. (iii) We find that, after disc dispersal, planets with significant gaseous envelopes cool and contract on Gyr time-scales, the contraction time being sensitive to the opacity assumed. Our results indicate that Hot Jupiters with core masses ≲15 M⊕ at ≲0.1 au likely accreted their gaseous envelopes at larger distances and migrated inwards. Consistently with the known exoplanet population, super-Earths and mini-Neptunes at small radii during the disc lifetime, accrete only modest gaseous envelopes.The simulations presented in this paper utilized Queen Mary's MidPlus computational facilities, supported by QMUL Research-IT and funded by EPSRC grant EP/K000128/1. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF PHY-1125915. We acknowledge the referee, Kaitlin Kratter, whose comments helped to improve this paper