Enabling access to the Green Climate Fund: Sharing country lessons from South Asia

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a financing mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Established in 2011, the GCF aims to make a significant and ambitious contribution towards internationally agreed goals to combat climate change. The flow of international climate finance to developing countries, particularly via the GCF, is projected to increase significantly as industrialised countries meet their commitments under the UNFCCC. This paper provides insights and lessons from South Asia on accessing GCF finance in terms of establishing the necessary institutional mechanisms and capabilities for developing funding proposals and managing the disbursement of funds. It is based on a series of interviews and the proceedings of a 2018 workshop with GCF-related government officials in the region, and illustrated with examples from the Action on Climate Today (ACT) programme. The paper presents a ‘demand-side’ country perspective on the challenges faced and some of the strategies countries have employed to overcome them. It synthesises this learning into a framework for strengthening access to the GCF, looking at systemic approaches and strategies that governments, funders and practitioners can use

Thyroid Abscess After Fine Needle Aspiration with Spontaneous Rupture into the Trachea : A Case Report

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) of the thyroid is a well-tolerated minimally invasive procedure. Thyroid abscess, as a complication of FNA in an immune-competent adult, is extremely rare. Diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion, for which treatment is intravenous antibiotics, drainage, and sometimes surgery. Here we present a case of thyroid abscess in an otherwise healthy man who presented with neck pain, rapidly increasing neck swelling, difficulty in swallowing, and hoarseness of the voice that developed two weeks after diagnostic FNA of a thyroid nodule which had been present for ten months. Despite antibiotic treatment, the abscess ruptured into the trachea, requiring surgical intervention. This highlights the importance of maintaining asepsis during FNA of the thyroid. Timely diagnosis of a thyroid abscess is essential to avoid life-threatening airway complications

2013 WSES guidelines for management of intra-abdominal infections

Peer reviewe

Revitalizing canal irrigation: towards improving cost recovery

Cost recovery from irrigation in almost all the countries presents a dismal picture. Low cost recovery coupled with declining government finances has led to the deterioration of both the quality of the built infrastructure and institutions managing and governing such infrastructure. This has created a vicious circle of low cost recovery, poor maintenance of infrastructure, inadequate and unreliable water supply, inefficient and corrupt institutions, and unwillingness of the farmers to pay. Breaking this vicious circle primarily requires identifying ways to improve availability of financial resources. Improving cost recovery from all users, including irrigators of the water, offers one of the most important avenues for raising financial resources. The present study examines some of the important issues that impinge on improving the cost recovery in canal irrigation, and assesses the feasibility of some of the efforts being made to improve cost recovery in irrigation to revitalize canal irrigation

Revitalizing canal irrigation: towards improving cost recovery

Cost recovery from irrigation in almost all the countries presents a dismal picture. Low cost recovery coupled with declining government finances has led to the deterioration of both the quality of the built infrastructure and institutions managing and governing such infrastructure. This has created a vicious circle of low cost recovery, poor maintenance of infrastructure, inadequate and unreliable water supply, inefficient and corrupt institutions, and unwillingness of the farmers to pay. Breaking this vicious circle primarily requires identifying ways to improve availability of financial resources. Improving cost recovery from all users, including irrigators of the water, offers one of the most important avenues for raising financial resources. The present study examines some of the important issues that impinge on improving the cost recovery in canal irrigation, and assesses the feasibility of some of the efforts being made to improve cost recovery in irrigation to revitalize canal irrigation

Revitalizing canal irrigation: towards improving cost recovery

Cost recovery from irrigation in almost all the countries presents a dismal picture. Low cost recovery coupled with declining government finances has led to the deterioration of both the quality of the built infrastructure and institutions managing and governing such infrastructure. This has created a vicious circle of low cost recovery, poor maintenance of infrastructure, inadequate and unreliable water supply, inefficient and corrupt institutions, and unwillingness of the farmers to pay. Breaking this vicious circle primarily requires identifying ways to improve availability of financial resources. Improving cost recovery from all users, including irrigators of the water, offers one of the most important avenues for raising financial resources. The present study examines some of the important issues that impinge on improving the cost recovery in canal irrigation, and assesses the feasibility of some of the efforts being made to improve cost recovery in irrigation to revitalize canal irrigation

Early experience of nintedanib in COVID-19 ARDS-related pulmonary fibrosis: a case series

The current COVID-19 pandemic has spread like wildfire worldwide and has affected millions of people. The novel corona virus mainly affects the lungs leading to life threatening disease like acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). The aftermath of the disease in form of pulmonary fibrosis is upcoming cause of further increase in morbidity and mortality. Nintedanib is an oral antifibrotics with proven role in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, however its use in COVID-19 related pulmonary fibrosis has not been studied. We report our early experience of use of nintedanib in COVID-19 related pulmonary fibrosis

An Improved Machine Learning Model with Hybrid Technique in VANET for Robust Communication

The vehicular ad hoc network, VANET, is one of the most popular and promising technologies in intelligent transportation today. However, VANET is susceptible to several vulnerabilities that result in an intrusion. This intrusion must be solved before VANET technology can be adopted. In this study, we suggest a unique machine learning technique to improve VANET’s effectiveness. The proposed method incorporates two phases. Phase I detects the DDoS attack using a novel machine learning technique called SVM-HHO, which provides information about the vehicle. Phase II mitigates the impact of a DDoS attack and allocates bandwidth using a reliable resources management technique based on the hybrid whale dragonfly optimization algorithm (H-WDFOA). This proposed model could be an effective technique predicting and utilizing reliable information that provides effective results in smart vehicles. The novel machine learning-based technique was implemented through MATLAB and NS2 platforms. Network quality measurements included congestion, transit, collision, and QoS awareness cost. Based on the constraints, a different cost framework was designed. In addition, data preprocessing of the QoS factor and total routing costs were considered. Rider integrated cuckoo search (RI-CS) is a novel optimization algorithm that combines the concepts of the rider optimization algorithm (ROA) and cuckoo search (CS) to determine the optimal route with the lowest routing cost. The enhanced hybrid ant colony optimization routing protocol (EHACORP) is a networking technology that increases efficiency by utilizing the shortest route. The shortest path of the proposed protocol had the lowest communication overhead and the fewest number of hops between sending and receiving vehicles. The EHACORP involved two stages. To find the distance between cars in phase 1, EHACORP employed a method for calculating distance. Using starting point ant colony optimization, the ants were guided in phase 2 to develop the shortest route with the least number of connections to send information. The relatively short approach increases protocol efficiency in every way. The pairing of DCM and SBACO at H-WDFOA-VANET accelerated packet processing, reduced ant search time, eliminated blind broadcasting, and prevented stagnation issues. The delivery ratio and throughput of the H-WDFOA-packet VANET benefitted from its use of the shortest channel without stagnation, its rapid packet processing, and its rapid convergence speed. In conclusion, the proposed hybrid whale dragonfly optimization approach (H-WDFOA-VANET) was compared with industry standard models, such as rider integrated cuckoo search (RI-CS) and enhanced hybrid ant colony optimization routing protocol (EHACORP). With the proposed method, throughput could be increased. The proposed system had energy consumption values of 2.00000 mJ, latency values of 15.61668 s, and a drop at node 60 of 0.15759. Additionally, a higher throughput was achieved with the new method. With the suggested method, it is possible to meet the energy consumption targets, delay value, and drop value at node 60. The proposed method reduces the drop value at node 80 to 0.15504, delay time to 15.64318 s, and energy consumption to 2.00000 mJ. These outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Thus, the proposed system is more efficient than existing systems