Implications of the Copenhagen Accord for Global Climate Governance

Climate advocates are increasingly raising specific climate change concerns before domestic courts, human rights tribunals, international commissions and other national and international decisionmaking bodies. Win or lose, these litigation strategies are significantly changing and enhancing the public dialogue around climate change. This article discusses the awareness-building impacts of climate litigation as well as related impacts such strategies may have on the development of climate law and policy. The article argues that litigation\u27s focus on specific victims facing immediate threats from climate change has increased the political will to address climate change both internationally and nationally. It has also shifted the debate towards questions of compensation and adaptation, and has brought new and democratic voices to the climate policy debate. As a result, climate litigation is leaving an important imprint on climate policy regardless of whether a tort action in the United States or the Inuit human rights claims, for example, ultimately prevail - and as demonstrated by the recent US Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, some climate claims will prevail, setting important precedents for the future direction of climate law and policy

Civil Society Networks and the Development of Environmental Standards at International Financial Institutions

This Article describes the recent emergence of standards for sustainable finance across a variety of FIs and the implications of those standards for the progressive development of international environmental law. Section II examines the evolution of sustainable development standards at the various FIs. Section III describes the structure and impact of the CSO networks that have influenced development of the standards and continue to monitor their implementation. Section IV identifies some of the implications of the development of these standards for international environmental lawmaking more generally

Implications of the Copenhagen Accord for Global Climate Governance

Climate advocates are increasingly raising specific climate change concerns before domestic courts, human rights tribunals, international commissions and other national and international decisionmaking bodies. Win or lose, these litigation strategies are significantly changing and enhancing the public dialogue around climate change. This article discusses the awareness-building impacts of climate litigation as well as related impacts such strategies may have on the development of climate law and policy. The article argues that litigation\u27s focus on specific victims facing immediate threats from climate change has increased the political will to address climate change both internationally and nationally. It has also shifted the debate towards questions of compensation and adaptation, and has brought new and democratic voices to the climate policy debate. As a result, climate litigation is leaving an important imprint on climate policy regardless of whether a tort action in the United States or the Inuit human rights claims, for example, ultimately prevail - and as demonstrated by the recent US Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, some climate claims will prevail, setting important precedents for the future direction of climate law and policy

The Implications of Climate Change Litigation for International Environmental Law-Making

Climate advocates are increasingly raising specific climate change concerns before domestic courts, human rights tribunals, international commissions and other national and international decisionmaking bodies. Win or lose, these litigation strategies are significantly changing and enhancing the public dialogue around climate change. This article discusses the awareness-building impacts of climate litigation as well as related impacts such strategies may have on the development of climate law and policy. The article argues that litigation\u27s focus on specific victims facing immediate threats from climate change has increased the political will to address climate change both internationally and nationally. It has also shifted the debate towards questions of compensation and adaptation, and has brought new and democratic voices to the climate policy debate. As a result, climate litigation is leaving an important imprint on climate policy regardless of whether a tort action in the United States or the Inuit human rights claims, for example, ultimately prevail - and as demonstrated by the recent US Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, some climate claims will prevail, setting important precedents for the future direction of climate law and policy

EPR spectroscopy of iron- and nickel-doped [ZnAl]-layered double hydroxides: modeling active sites in heterogeneous water oxidation catalysts

Iron-doped nickel layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are among the most active heterogeneous water oxidation catalysts. Due to inter-spin interactions, however, the high density of magnetic centers results in line-broadening in magnetic resonance spectra. As a result, gaining atomic-level insight into the catalytic mechanism via electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) is not generally possible. To circumvent spin-spin broadening, iron and nickel atoms were doped into non-magnetic [ZnAl]-LDH materials and the coordination environments of the isolated Fe(III) and Ni(II) sites were characterized. Multifrequency EPR spectroscopy identified two distinct Fe(III) sites (S = 5/2) in [Fe:ZnAl]-LDH. Changes in zero field splitting (ZFS) were induced by dehydration of the material, revealing that one of the Fe(III) sites is solvent-exposed (i.e. at an edge, corner, or defect site). These solvent-exposed sites feature an axial ZFS of 0.21 cm⁻¹ when hydrated. The ZFS increases dramatically upon dehydration (to -1.5 cm⁻¹), owing to lower symmetry and a decrease in the coordination number of iron. The ZFS of the other (“inert”) Fe(III) site maintains an axial ZFS of 0.19-0.20 cm⁻¹ under both hydrated and dehydrated conditions. We observed a similar effect in [Ni:ZnAl]-LDH materials; notably, Ni(II) (S = 1) atoms displayed a single, small ZFS (±0.30 cm⁻¹) in hydrated material, whereas two distinct Ni(II) ZFS values (±0.30 and ±1.1 cm⁻¹) were observed in the dehydrated samples. Although the magnetically-dilute materials were not active catalysts, the identification of model sites in which the coordination environments of iron and nickel were particularly labile (e.g. by simple vacuum drying) is an important step towards identifying sites in which the coordination number may drop spontaneously in water, a probable mechanism of water oxidation in functional materials

The effect of image position on the Independent Components of natural binocular images

Human visual performance degrades substantially as the angular distance from the fovea increases. This decrease in performance is found for both binocular and monocular vision. Although analysis of the statistics of natural images has provided significant insights into human visual processing, little research has focused on the statistical content of binocular images at eccentric angles. We applied Independent Component Analysis to rectangular image patches cut from locations within binocular images corresponding to different degrees of eccentricity. The distribution of components learned from the varying locations was examined to determine how these distributions varied across eccentricity. We found a general trend towards a broader spread of horizontal and vertical position disparity tunings in eccentric regions compared to the fovea, with the horizontal spread more pronounced than the vertical spread. Eccentric locations above the centroid show a strong bias towards far-tuned components, eccentric locations below the centroid show a strong bias towards near-tuned components. These distributions exhibit substantial similarities with physiological measurements in V1, however in common with previous research we also observe important differences, in particular distributions of binocular phase disparity which do not match physiologypublishersversionPeer reviewe

Ideal binocular disparity detectors learned using independent subspace analysis on binocular natural image pairs

This work was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant [BB/K018973/1].An influential theory of mammalian vision, known as the efficient coding hypothesis, holds that early stages in the visual cortex attempts to form an efficient coding of ecologically valid stimuli. Although numerous authors have successfully modelled some aspects of early vision mathematically, closer inspection has found substantial discrepancies between the predictions of some of these models and observations of neurons in the visual cortex. In particular analysis of linear-non-linear models of simple-cells using Independent Component Analysis has found a strong bias towards features on the horoptor. In order to investigate the link between the information content of binocular images, mathematical models of complex cells and physiological recordings, we applied Independent Subspace Analysis to binocular image patches in order to learn a set of complex-cell-like models. We found that these complex-cell-like models exhibited a wide range of binocular disparity-discriminability, although only a minority exhibited high binocular discrimination scores. However, in common with the linear-non-linear model case we found that feature detection was limited to the horoptor suggesting that current mathematical models are limited in their ability to explain the functionality of the visual cortex.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Simulated Analogs of Merging Galaxy Clusters Constrain the Viewing Angle

A key uncertainty in interpreting observations of bimodal merging galaxy clusters is the unknown angle between the subcluster separation vector and the plane of the sky. We present a new method for constraining this key parameter. We find analogs of observed systems in cosmological n-body simulations and quantify their likelihood of matching the observed projected separation and relative radial velocities between subclusters, as a function of viewing angle. We derive constraints on the viewing angle of many observed bimodal mergers including the Bullet Cluster (1E 0657-558) and El Gordo (ACT-CL J0102-4915). We also present more generic constraints as a function of projected separation and relative radial velocity, which can be used to assess additional clusters as information about them becomes available. The constraints from these two observables alone are weak (typically $\gtrsim 70-75^\circ$ at 68\% confidence and $\gtrsim 55-60^\circ$ at 95\% confidence) but incorporate much more cosmological context than the classical timing argument, marginalizing over many realizations of substructure, peculiar velocities, and so on. Compared to the MCMAC code, which implements the timing argument on NFW halos, our constraints generally predict subcluster separation vectors closer to the plane of the sky. This is because in realistic mergers the subcluster velocity vectors are not entirely parallel to the separation vector (i.e, the mergers are not perfectly head-on). As a result, observation of a nonzero relative radial velocity does not exclude a separation vector in the plane of the sky, as it does in the head-on timing argument employed by MCMAC.Comment: 11 pages, this version accepted to ApJ (minor wording changes from v1

A computer-assisted motivational social network intervention to reduce alcohol, drug and HIV risk behaviors among Housing First residents.

BackgroundIndividuals transitioning from homelessness to housing face challenges to reducing alcohol, drug and HIV risk behaviors. To aid in this transition, this study developed and will test a computer-assisted intervention that delivers personalized social network feedback by an intervention facilitator trained in motivational interviewing (MI). The intervention goal is to enhance motivation to reduce high risk alcohol and other drug (AOD) use and reduce HIV risk behaviors.Methods/designIn this Stage 1b pilot trial, 60 individuals that are transitioning from homelessness to housing will be randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition. The intervention condition consists of four biweekly social network sessions conducted using MI. AOD use and HIV risk behaviors will be monitored prior to and immediately following the intervention and compared to control participants' behaviors to explore whether the intervention was associated with any systematic changes in AOD use or HIV risk behaviors.DiscussionSocial network health interventions are an innovative approach for reducing future AOD use and HIV risk problems, but little is known about their feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy. The current study develops and pilot-tests a computer-assisted intervention that incorporates social network visualizations and MI techniques to reduce high risk AOD use and HIV behaviors among the formerly homeless. CLINICALTRIALS.Gov identifierNCT02140359

Standardization of Human-Computer-Interface for Geo-Fencing in Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems

The use of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) has increased significantly in the past year. Geographic fencing (geo-fencing) is software built into most medium-cost consumer sUAS. This software is typically used to limit the altitude above launch point, the flight distance from the transmitting controller, and/or restrict flight inside a no-fly zone. While the concept of a geo-fence is simplistic, the human-computer-interface (HCI) varies drastically among platforms, and even between software iterations on the same platform. This research examines the HCI of three popular consumer-level sUAS with regard to geo-fencing. The software procedures and human interface for the DJI Inspire-1, 3D Robotics IRIS+, and Yuneec Typhoon Q500+ were evaluated through review of relevant literature, software, and flight-testing. This assessment yielded several recommendations for geo-fencing software for sUAS