Demystifying the Arctic. Authored by the Members of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Arctic, Davos-Klosters, Switzerland 22-25 January 2014

To this day, the general public thinks of the Arctic in visions of unspoiled ocean and landscapes, expansive ice, clean water, unique species and aboriginal cultures – essentially, it reminds everyone that a true wilderness still exists. In addition to important natural resources, the Arctic provides inspiration by maintaining its irreplaceable cultures, a pristine environment, healthy ecosystem and ground-breaking collaborative governance models. As such, it is a global asset that should be maintained

Insight report

Bibliografia: p. 16Disponível online em: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0001541This work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the Co-publishers and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the Co-publishers that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the Co-publishers’ names for any purpose other than for attribution and the use of the Co-publishers' logos shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the Co-publishers and the user, and is not authorized as part of this CCIGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.This report presents a series of recommendations intended to address some of the main challenges facing Brazil's infrastructure sector as it transitions to a new financing model in which the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) will be the catalyst for domestic and foreign private funding

Progress in the synthesis of sustainable polymers from terpenes and terpenoids

The imminent depletion of resources derived from fossil fuels is a major concern for today’s society. 300 Mt of polymers are used every year in the form of plastics, most commonly derived from fossil fuels, hence the necessity to find new materials based on renewable resources. This review explores the utilisation of monoterpenes and terpenoids – a family of abundant and inexpensive natural products – as promising renewable monomers. Terpenes can be directly used in polymerisations or converted into bespoke monomers through organic transformations. The use of terpenes for the production of renewable plastics has been a prevalent topic of research for the past few decades. Early research focused on cationic polymerisation of terpenes by way of their alkene moieties; however, more recently terpenes are being functionalised to incorporate handles for a larger range of polymerisation techniques. Herein an assessment of the future prospects for the use of these small functional molecules to synthesise novel and valuable renewable materials is presented

Environmental water efficiency: Maximizing benefits and minimizing costs of environmental water use and management

Environmental water management is a relatively new discipline, with concepts, management practice and institutional mechanisms that are still emerging. The efficient and effective use of environmental water to maximize environmental benefits, or environmental water use efficiency, is one such emerging concept. Currently, much of the focus is on allocative efficiency, where the objective is to achieve a better balance between consumptive and environmental water uses in a cost‐effective way. However, this may not provide the most efficient and effective way to manage environmental water in the long term, where managers are seeking productive (or operational) efficiency. Here, the objective is to maximize environmental outcomes relative to the cost of managing the available resource. This paper explores the concept of water use efficiency in the context of environmental water

The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education.

The underrepresentation of girls and women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is a continual concern for social scientists and policymakers. Using an international database on adolescent achievement in science, mathematics, and reading ( N = 472,242), we showed that girls performed similarly to or better than boys in science in two of every three countries, and in nearly all countries, more girls appeared capable of college-level STEM study than had enrolled. Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths and pursuit of STEM degrees rose with increases in national gender equality. The gap between boys' science achievement and girls' reading achievement relative to their mean academic performance was near universal. These sex differences in academic strengths and attitudes toward science correlated with the STEM graduation gap. A mediation analysis suggested that life-quality pressures in less gender-equal countries promote girls' and women's engagement with STEM subjects