Suchergebnisse

In 2013, the European Commission passed out the EU Adaptation strategy to increase knowledge-based framework related to resilience impacts on climate change adaptation actions. This study addresses the implementation of Nature-based Solutions (NBS) in three urban living labs in Milan as an experimental co-creation process. The ideation is mainly based on co-designing and co-implementing the possible NBS interventions with multiplicity of local stakeholders and involving citizens. The planned interventions starting in June 2019, in urban living labs known as CLEVER Action Labs (CALs), are summarized as follows: (1) Public tender for promoting green roofs and green facades in private buildings, (2) Giambellino 129 public park, and (3) vertical green interventions on the new Tibaldi train stop ; these are subject to investigation based on scale of application, urban policies, and governance. The comparative analysis between the three CALs showed: (1) a great potential to incentivize greening alliances and tax bonds from the local governmental authority, (2) the place-based morphology influences the urban resilience of the overall space context. The preliminary results correlate the stimulation of the 2015 European Commission framework on "NBS implementation and Re-Naturing Cities" to help shape the major funds behind the local governmental authorities' involvement; yet, the economic feasibility of the NBS interventions remains a critical point to tackle local stakeholders' engagement. Another strong aspect refers to the existing greening initiatives in the local Milanese context such as 'Milan 2030 vision' and the resilience strategy put in place to adapt and mitigate the Milanese climate change challenges and address its urban sustainability issues.

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) have been on the forefront of the urban regeneration processes in a later fashion; that direction fundamentally intertwines with the European Commission framework of Research and Innovation policy on "Re-Naturing cities and Green Infrastructure" aiming towards positioning the EU as leader in 'Innovating with nature'. This research paper exploits the originality of using Co-Creation as Pathway for cities to better implement NBSs, and achieve flexible, open, equitable urban resilience, and adapt climate change strategies. Co-Creation dynamic processes build on involving stakeholders and engaging local community at every stage; moreover, account on collective governance and outputting social, economic and environmental 'Co-benefits'. Primitively, the aim of this paper is to highlight the innovation of Co-Creation tools towards addressing NBS challenges, as well as, the assessment of front-runner cities' governmental approaches in facilitations or deficiency towards the accomplishment of Co-creation processes. The case-study application of this work refers to the NBS Co-creation guidance -under development- for the H2020 project 'Clever Cities' under GA776604, specifically tailored for the cities of London, Hamburg and Milan.

BACKGROUND: This qualitative pilot study aimed to establish views of traditional and biomedical practitioners towards collaboration between the two sectors on the treatment of people with mental illness in Zanzibar, Tanzania. METHODS: Six traditional healers (known as "waganga" in Swahili) and six nurses working in government secondary mental health services were invited to participate in a series of focus group discussions (FGDs). Two sets of FGDs took place approximately seven weeks apart. In each set, FGDs were conducted with traditional healers only, nurses only, and finally nurses and traditional healers together. FGDs were conducted in Swahili, audio-recorded and then translated to English by an independent translator and coded thematically using NVivo software. RESULTS: All participants expressed that they were in favour of collaboration between traditional and biomedical practitioners on mental healthcare. Opinions varied regarding what form this collaboration should take. For many nurses and healers, there was acknowledgement of the role of the other group in providing treatment for people with mental illness, with support for the idea of bi-directional referrals between the two sectors. For some nurses, the value of collaboration would be purely in the education of traditional healers in the recognition of mental illness, with subsequent referral to biomedical services. For some traditional healers, the idea of collaboration seemed to appeal in part because of a perceived opportunity to learn additional skills from biomedical practitioners. Both categories of participant expressed a belief that patients possessed by a jinn (a spirit) or those that had been bewitched needed treatment by traditional healers. On the other hand, those with what participants considered to be "mental illness" needed treatment at the hospital clinic. However, some nurses felt that that traditional healers might be able to provide helpful treatment for mental illness, as well as those suspected to be affected by jinn or ...

Lately, the European Commission forged in the framework of Research and Innovation of Horizon 2020 the policy of "Re-Naturing cities and Green Infrastructure" aiming towards positioning the EU as leader in 'Innovating with nature' and pushing forward systematic urban governance for social cohesion. CLEVER Cities project came to life within that framework with two main objectives: fostering the implementation of nature-based solutions in urban context as well as embedding the complete co-creation concept in Front-runner cities urban regeneration strategies. Complete co-creation is a novel approach of entrenched co-design, co-implementation, co-monitoring and codevelopment with fully engaged stakeholders and local communities. It aims at achieving social cohesion, inclusive participatory co-design processes and goes beyond towards changing the facets of environmental adaptation and mitigation environmental policies. In other words, successful solutions to environmental problems in a co-creation process require the combined efforts of different scientific disciplines and active dialogue between stakeholders from policy and society actors. This research paper exploits the originality of using Co-Creation as Pathway for cities to better implement NBS, and achieve flexible, open, equitable urban resilience, and adapt climate change strategies. Co-Creation dynamic processes build on involving stakeholders and engaging local community at every stage; moreover, account on collective governance for outputting social, economic and environmental 'Co-benefits'. CLEVER Cities developed two main concepts: Urban Innovation Partnership (UIP) and CLEVER Action Labs (CALs) as main representation of the powerful mechanisms to implement nature-based solutions in urban fabrics. Three cities are on the forefront of the experimental processes: London, Hamburg, and Milan. Running on different scales, CALs work as an urban living lab of co-creative solutions to get implemented. The guidance provides indications for cities to experimental use; and to verify the guidance feasibility and doability. In addition, the city of Milan served as a test-bed for this research study. An Urban Innovation Partnership (UIP) was established and three CALs are under further investigation and potential development starting June 2019. 16 steps are envisioned to support cities to accomplish successful implementation of NBS. Each step is composed by one or more activities, which can be freely adjusted by each city, depending on their local contexts. For each Step it is important to achieve an outcome. Each city has its own geography, geology, climate conditions, as well as social, economic and cultural structures. Hence, the content is merely flexible to be translated and transferred in each city local setting.

The efficiency transfer (ET) principle is considered as a simple numerical simulation method, which can be used to calculate the full-energy peak efficiency (FEPE) of3″×3″NaI(Tl) scintillation detector over a wide energy range. In this work, the calculations of FEPE are based on computing the effective solid angle ratio between a radioactive point and parallelepiped sources located at various distances from the detector surface. Besides, the attenuation of the photon by the source-to-detector system (detector material, detector end cap, and holder material) was considered and determined. This method is straightforwardly useful in setting up the efficiency calibration curve for NaI(Tl) scintillation detector, when no calibration sources exist in volume shape. The values of the efficiency calculations using theoretical method are compared with the measured ones and the results show that the discrepancies in general for all the measurements are found to be less than 6%.

The Cross River State Government in Nigeria is proposing to construct a "Cross River Superhighway" that would bisect critical remaining areas of tropical rainforest in south eastern Nigeria. We offer and evaluate two alternative routes to the superhighway that would be less damaging to forests, protected areas, and biological diversity. The first alternative we identified avoids intact forests entirely while seeking to benefit agriculture and existing settlements. The second alternative also avoids intact forests while incorporating existing paved and unpaved roads to limit construction costs. As currently proposed, the superhighway would be 260 km long, would intersect 115 km of intact forests or protected areas, and would cost an estimated US$2.5 billion to construct. Alternative Routes 1 and 2 are only slightly longer (290 and 353 km, respectively) and have markedly lower estimated construction costs (US$0.92 billion). Furthermore, the alternative routes would have negligible impacts on forests and protected areas and would be better aligned to benefit local communities and agriculture. We argue that alternative routings such as those we examined here could markedly reduce the economic and environmental costs, and potentially increase the socioeconomic benefits, for the proposed Cross River Superhighway.

Funding The project was funded by the European Union FP7 Marie Curie Actions, under the Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) programme (MC-IAPP BreathDx 611951). WA, TF, PD and SJF were supported by the NIHR Manchester Biochemical Research Centre. ; BACKGROUND: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is associated with high morbidity and health care costs, yet diagnosis remains a challenge. Analysis of airway microbiota by amplicon sequencing provides a possible solution, as pneumonia is characterised by a disruption of the microbiome. However, studies evaluating the diagnostic capabilities of microbiome analysis are limited, with a lack of alignment on possible biomarkers. Using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) from ventilated adult patients suspected of VAP, we aimed to explore how key characteristics of the microbiome differ between patients with positive and negative BALF cultures and whether any differences could have a clinically relevant role. METHODS: BALF from patients suspected of VAP was analysed using 16s rRNA sequencing in order to: (1) differentiate between patients with and without a positive culture; (2) determine if there was any association between microbiome diversity and local inflammatory response; and (3) correctly identify pathogens detected by conventional culture. RESULTS: Thirty-seven of 90 ICU patients with suspected VAP had positive cultures. Patients with a positive culture had significant microbiome dysbiosis with reduced alpha diversity. However, gross compositional variance was not strongly associated with culture positivity (AUROCC range 0.66-0.71). Patients with a positive culture had a significantly higher relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria compared to those without [0.45 (IQR 0.10-0.84), 0.02 (IQR 0.004-0.09), respectively], and an increased interleukin (IL)-1β was associated with reduced species evenness (rs = - 0.33, p < 0.01) and increased pathogenic bacteria presence (rs = 0.28, p = 0.013). Untargeted 16s rRNA pathogen detection was limited by ...

'We have kicked the can down the road once again – but we are running out of road.' – Rachel Kyte, Dean of Fletcher School at Tufts University. We, in our capacities as scientists, economists, governance and policy specialists, are shifting from warnings to guidance for action before there is no more 'road.' The science is clear and irrefutable; humanity is in advanced ecological overshoot. Our over exploitation of resources exceeds ecosystems'capacity to provide them or to absorb our waste. Society has failed to meet clearly stated goals of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Civilization faces an epochal crossroads, but with potentially much better, wiser outcomes if we act now. What are the concrete and transformative actions by which we can turn away from the abyss? In this paper we forcefully recommend priority actions and resource allocation to avert the worst of the climate and nature emergencies, two of the most pressing symptoms of overshoot, and lead society into a future of greater wellbeing and wisdom. Humanity has begun the social, economic, political and technological initiatives needed for this transformation. Now, massive upscaling and acceleration of these actions and collaborations are essential before irreversible tipping points are crossed in the coming decade. We still can overcome significant societal, political and economic barriers of our own making. Previously, we identified six core areas for urgent global action – energy, pollutants, nature, food systems, population stabilization and economic goals. Here we identify an indicative, systemic and time-limited framework for priority actions for policy, planning and management at multiple scales from household to global. We broadly follow the 'Reduce-Remove-Repair' approach to rapid action. To guide decision makers, planners, managers, and budgeters, we cite some of the many experiments, mechanisms and resources in order to facilitate rapid global adoption of effective solutions. Our biggest challenges are not technical, but social, economic, political and behavioral. To have hope of success, we must accelerate collaborative actions across scales, in different cultures and governance systems, while maintaining adequate social, economic and political stability. Effective and timely actions are still achievable on many, though not all fronts. Such change will mean the difference for billions of children and adults, hundreds of thousands of species, health of many ecosystems, and will determine our common future.

The Handbook aims to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive NBS impact assessment framework, and a robust set of indicators and methodologies to assess impacts of nature-based solutions across 12 societal challenge areas: Climate Resilience; Water Management; Natural and Climate Hazards; Green Space Management; Biodiversity; Air Quality; Place Regeneration; Knowledge and Social Capacity Building for Sustainable Urban Transformation; Participatory Planning and Governance; Social Justice and Social Cohesion; Health and Well-being; New Economic Opportunities and Green Jobs. Indicators have been developed collaboratively by representatives of 17 individual EU-funded NBS projects and collaborating institutions such as the EEA and JRC, as part of the European Taskforce for NBS Impact Assessment, with the four-fold objective of: serving as a reference for relevant EU policies and activities; orient urban practitioners in developing robust impact evaluation frameworks for nature-based solutions at different scales; expand upon the pioneering work of the EKLIPSE framework by providing a comprehensive set of indicators and methodologies; and build the European evidence base regarding NBS impacts. They reflect the state of the art in current scientific research on impacts of nature-based solutions and valid and standardized methods of assessment, as well as the state of play in urban implementation of evaluation frameworks.