Achieving urban climate adaptation in Europe and Central Asia

Many cities across Europe and Central Asia are experiencing the impacts of climate change, but most have not integrated climate adaptation into their agendas. This paper examines the threats faced and measures that can be taken by cities in the region to protect buildings, heritage sites, municipal functions, and vulnerable urban populations. In general, local governments must be proactive in ensuring that existing buildings are climate ready, paying particular attention to emerging technologies for retrofitting the prefabricated, panel style buildings that dominate the landscape while assessing the viability of homes situated in flood plains, coastal areas, and steep slopes. They also must ensure that new developments and buildings are designed in ways that account for climatic fluctuations. Although the resilience of all populations needs to be considered, historical patterns of discrimination require that special provisions are made for the poor and for ethnic minorities such as the Roma because these groups will be most at risk, but are least likely to have access to adequate resources. Urban climate adaptation requires national-level support and local commitment. However, centralized planning and expert-led decision-making under the former regimes may affect the ability of cities to pursue programmatic approaches to adaptation. Therefore, while national governments need to make adaptation a policy priority and ensure that municipalities have adequate resources, local government agencies and departments must be transparent in their actions and introduce participatory and community-based measures that demonstrate respect for diverse stakeholders and perspectives.Wetlands,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Environmental Economics&Policies,Science of Climate Change,Climate Change Economics

Anti-fog composition

An anti-fog composition is described for the prevention of fogging on surfaces such as space helmet visors, spacecraft windows, and windshields. It is composed of a surface active agent, water, and an oil time extender

Inexpensive anti-fog coating for windows

Coating applications include anti-fog protection for deep-sea diving equipment, fire protection helmets, and windows of vehicles used in hazardous environments. Basic coating composition includes liquid detergent, deionized water, and oxygen compatible fire-resistant oil. Composition prevents visor fogging under maximum metabolic load for 5 hours and longer

Preparing Cities for Climate Change: An International Comparative Assessment of Urban Adaptation Planning. Semi-Structured Interview Instrument

The research objective of this project is to conduct an international comparative assessment of urban adaptation planning. Cities throughout the world are experiencing chronic problems and extreme events that are being attributed climate change. Although there is a critical need for cities to protect their built, natural, and human environments, there is notable variability in the approaches they are taking. At one extreme, some cities are developing dedicated and integrated climate adaptation plans. At the other extreme are cities that have not established any plans or initiated any adaptation measures whatsoever. Drawing on theories of diffusion and capacity, and case study and survey methodologies, this comparative international research examines: (1) the types of plans for climate adaptation being adopted in cities; (2) factors associated with differences in the approaches urban municipalities are taking toward climate adaptation planning; and (3) the ways that the efforts of nongovernmental and community-based organizations complement, circumvent, and replace government adaptation initiatives. The results from this inquiry will expand our understanding of the forces and factors shaping decisions related to urban climate action. They also will deepen our knowledge of how civil society actors affect the capacity local governments. Disaster risk reduction is a critical component of climate adaptation planning. Therefore, as a consequence of studying adaptation, this research will enhance our understanding of the social and political dimensions of planning for natural disasters. To ensure that the policy-relevant results reach decision-makers in cities, the findings will be summarized in a report and disseminated to members of climate and local government networks. The research findings also will form the basis for case studies that can be used in graduate-level courses and will contribute to the development of a web tool designed to assist cities in their adaptation initiatives. In addition to generating policy and educational materials, graduate students will have opportunities to gain experience conducting research in international settings.Funded by National Science Foundation Infrastructure Management and Extreme Events Program grant #0926349. Endorsed by the International Human Dimensions Programme's (IHDP) core project on Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC). Partnered with ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

“Edutainment”: The Role of Mass Media in the Development of an Effective HIV/AIDS Youth Awareness Campaign in Viet Nam

Since the first reported case of HIV in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in the year 1990, more than 300,000 people have contracted the disease. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam has made considerable progress since that time in disseminating information on HIV/AIDS to the public, utilizing various forms of media. Yet in the rudimentary stages of this national effort, a “social evils” campaign was launched by the government; an emphasis was placed on informing the public as to why individuals contract HIV/AIDS, and which negative individual behaviors, or “social evils,” influence the proliferation of the disease. As more of the population was exposed to the government’s mass media campaign to educate about HIV/AIDS, by means of television, radio, posters, and billboards, negative images of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PWHA) became permanently imprinted on the minds of a nation, and a misunderstanding of HIV/AIDS stimulated widespread fear and value driven stigmatization and discrimination of PWHA. Due to a combination of rapid globalization and the prevalence of traditional Confucian values entrenched in Vietnamese culture, it is often difficult for the younger generation to gain a more comprehensive knowledge. Because over half the population of Vietnam consists of individuals under the age of 25, it is crucial that this demographic be the principal target of awareness campaigns. Although young people in Vietnam today have a relatively high amount of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, they are becoming more sexually active and practicing unsafe sex, failing to utilize this knowledge. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and non-profit organizations need to coordinate to foster a consistent national dialogue involving PWHA, featuring a multi-dimensional media campaign

The growth of wheat seedlings in solutions containing monopotassium phosphate, calcium nitrate, and magnesium sulphate, singly and in pairs.

Soon after the atomic theory was established, it was found that the plant uses as sources of food not only the air and water, but also different constituents of the soil, dissolved in the soil moisture—the mineral nutrients. Ashes of different burned plants were analyzed; they were found to vary with the soil in which the plants were grown as well as with the species of the plant and the special organ from which the ashes were obtained. A great number of minerals was found in the ashes. The question arose soon, which of these elements is essential to the nutrition and growth of plants. Different experimental methods were evolved to solve this problem. It is possible to decide if any of the mineral nutrients is really essential to the plant only by growing the plant in an artificial medium, from which we are sure the element in question is absent. Soil extracts were used as artificial culture media; ash of plants dissolved in water was used as such. But the most satisfactory results were obtained by water cultures and pure sand cultures. Each one of the two last mentioned methods has its advantages and disadvantages. In sand cultures we are never sure that the sand itself does not contain any traces of soluble minerals, and it is hard to keep constantly the same moisture conditions in all cultures; but at the same time, sand cultures approach closer the natural physical conditions in the soil. Water cultures are much easier to prepare and to control; all plants are sure to be presented the same amount of the same nutritive solution, and there are no interactions between constituents of the nutritive solution and any inert matter. It was established by using different artificial media that the elements needed for the normal nutrition and growth of plants are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulphur, nitrogen, and iron. The plant gets its carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air and it obtains oxygen from the air. Oxygen and hydrogen, combined as water, are absorbed by the roots. Iron is needed only in later stages with the forming and functioning of the chlorophyll. All the other elements must be presented to the plant in the nutritive solution. Water culture nutritive solutions made up in different ways were used. In such water culture solutions it is possible to get fully grown plants, bearing normal seeds, and this fact was actually demonstrated many times with different plants. The earlier workers, as Knop, Sachs, Pfeffer, and the others, generally used water solutions made up with four, five, six, or even more salts. The procedure has been simplified in recent investigations, and now most nutritive solutions are made up of three main salts. Livingston (1919) has shown that there are six possible combinations of the elements necessary for normal plant growth that can be made in pairing them in three salts. The first possible combination is calcium nitrate, monopotassium phosphate, and magnesium sulphate. This is the one mostly used in contemporary experimentations, and these three salts were also used in the present work. The salt combinations mentioned above may be regarded as final and incapable of further simplification. The greatest amount of work done till now with water cultures has consisted in growing the plants in different nutritive solutions containing all the essential elements. But it must clearly be understood that the complete nutritive solution is itself a physiologically balanced solution, which contains different elements acting differently upon the plant and one upon the other. The action of a balanced solution is such that the toxic effects that each salt would exert, if it alone were present, is counteracted or antagonized by the other salts present in the solution. Simultaneously with the simplification of the composition of the nutritive solution, other improvements were being made. Among these refinements of technique has been (1) the use of purer salts and purer distilled water, (2) the testing a much greater number of plants so as to minimize the effects of variability, and (3) the controlling more strictly the different environmental conditions, in the nutritive solution itself as well as in the serial surroundings of the plants. The results obtained are of course of increasing value, and they show more and more the actual meaning of the matters investigated. It is believed that the time is ripe now to investigate into the fundamental properties of these nutritive solutions, to get at the finer details of the function of each one of their constituent salts. With this general aim in mind the present work was undertaken. Each one of the three salts constituting the nutritive solution was investigated separately, and its influence upon growth of tops and roots was studied. These three salts were then tried in different mixtures in pairs, and their influence was again investigated. The results obtained from these mixtures were finally compared with those obtained for the single salts. It is hoped that the present work will help us in obtaining a deeper insight into the function of water culture solutions, and will help in understanding better the nutritive requirements of the plant and the function of each one of these nutritive substances separately. It is also hoped that this work will serve as a sound basis for further investigations in the same direction

Constitutional Law—Racial Factor May Be Considered by School Board in Correcting Imbalance in New School District

Balaban v. Rubin, 14 N.Y.2d 193, 199 N.E.2d 375, 250 N.Y.S.2d 281, cert. denied, 85 S.Ct 148 (1964)

KERUSUHAN 10 OKTOBER TAHUN 1996 SITUBONDO

Kerusuhan yang diakibatkan kesalahpahaman dan prasangka yang muncul dimasing-masing pemeluk agama digambarkan dibeberapa kejadian yang terjadi sepanjang tahun 1996 di masa Orde Baru. Gereja merupakan tempat peribadahan yang seharusnya menjadi hak dari setiap pemeluk agama yang harus dijaga baik oleh pemeluk agama itu sendiri maupun pemeluk agama lain. Kerusuhan yang melibatkan agama kristen sebagai korban secara umum dilakukan oleh agama lain, namun pada kasus kerusuhan ini yang menjadi latar belakang terjadinya pembakaran dan pengerusakan fasilitas-fasilitas umat Kristen adalah penodaan agama islam oleh penganutnya sendiri. Peneliti menggunakan 4 tahapan, yakni heuristic, kritik, interpretasi dan historiografi, 4 tahapan ini akan membantu menjawab ketiga rumusan-rumusan masalah: 1) Bagaimana latar belakang faktor kondisional Kerusuhan 10 Oktoberterjadi di Kota Situbondo tahun 1996,  2) Bagaimana Kerusuhan 10 Oktober Situbondo tahun 1996 terjadi, 3) Bagaimana proses upaya penyelesaian Kerusuhan Situbondo. Prasangka menjadi titik awal dimana muncul kebencian-kebencian dan ketidakpercayaan antar pemeluk agama yang menimbulkan konflik karna prasangka-prasangka yang awalnya terpendam dialam bawah sadar seseorang yang menunggu momentum hal yang dapat meledakkan prasangka itu menjadi konflik batin dan lalu meluap kepada konflik kelompok dan lingkungan. Ketersinggungan masyarakat akan hal-hal yang sensitife ini terlihat pada kasus penodaan agama oleh Saleh seorang pemuda berumur 26 tahun yang bekerja sebagai penjaga masjid, yang dianggap sebagai akar kerusuhan 10 Oktober 1996. Masyarakat Situbondo yang dalam kehidupannya menjunjung kehormatan para kiai dan ulama. Massa yang tidak mampu mengontrol emosi karena vonis Saleh yang dinilai terlalu ringan melimpahkan kemarahan pada bangunan-bangunan disekitar pengadilan negeri Situbondo terutama gereja karena terdengar isu bahwa Saleh bersembunyi didalam gereja. Massa yang terorganisir dengan baik langsung menyebar keberbagai sudut Situbondo dengan kendaraan-kendaraan yang terbilang telah siap mengankut ribuan massa tersebut dan adanya isu Saleh sebagai terdakwa penodaan agama telah disembunyikan didalam gereja serta isu bahwa jaksa dan hakim yang mengadili adalah umat Kristen. Rombongan FKKS pada saat melakukan penyelidikan ditempat-tempat kejadian di Situbondo, menemukan kaleng cat dan botol-botol yang diduga merupakan bom molotov dan cat untuk mencorat-coret bangunan. Pengadilan negeri berhasil menuntaskan 2 dari 12 berkas perkara yang digelar satu bulan setelah kerusuhan, 7 berkas hingga Selasa sudah memasuki tahap tuntutan hukuman dan 3 berkas lainnya memasuki tahap akhir pemeriksaan saksi. Instropeksi dan diskusi semua umat beragama dan pemuka agama gencar dilakukan dan akan dilakukan terus menerus untuk mengembalikan kondisi psikologis antar umat beragama yang sempat terkoyak dengan munculnya Kerusuhan Situbondo 10 Oktober 1996. Kata kunci: Situbondo, Saleh, Kerusuha