We present a set of indicators of vulnerability and capacity to adapt to climate variability, and by extension climate change, derived using a novel empirical analysis of data aggregated at the ...national level on a decadal timescale. The analysis is based on a conceptual framework in which risk is viewed in terms of outcome, and is a function of physically defined climate hazards and socially constructed vulnerability. Climate outcomes are represented by mortality from climate-related disasters, using the emergency events database data set, statistical relationships between mortality and a shortlist of potential proxies for vulnerability are used to identify key vulnerability indicators. We find that 11 key indicators exhibit a strong relationship with decadally aggregated mortality associated with climate-related disasters. Validation of indicators, relationships between vulnerability and adaptive capacity, and the sensitivity of subsequent vulnerability assessments to different sets of weightings are explored using expert judgement data, collected through a focus group exercise. The data are used to provide a robust assessment of vulnerability to climate-related mortality at the national level, and represent an entry point to more detailed explorations of vulnerability and adaptive capacity. They indicate that the most vulnerable nations are those situated in sub-Saharan Africa and those that have recently experienced conflict. Adaptive capacity—one element of vulnerability—is associated predominantly with governance, civil and political rights, and literacy.
Abstract
Mixtures between choline and geranic acid (CAGE) have previously been shown to insert into lipid bilayers. This may be useful for the transdermal delivery of larger pharmaceuticals, however, ...little is known about the mechanism of activity. By comparing the interactions between CAGE and lipid bilayers with those of a less‐active, yet closely‐related analogue, choline octanoic acid (CAOT), a chemical basis can be investigated. Overall, six systems are studied here by neutron reflectivity, where d
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‐1,2‐dimyristoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphocholine (DMPC) solid‐supported phospholipid bilayers are first formed on SiO
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substrates before exposure to the deep eutectic solvent (DES). Components of the DES could be identified within the bilayer by exploiting contrast variation and selective deuteration. CAGE is shown to be a mild disruptive agent, free to insert and diffuse across the bilayer, preserving much of the bilayer integrity. Experiments identify co‐mingling of geranate ions inhibits the efficient packing of lipid tails, increasing hydration across the bilayer. Conversely, CAOT is found to both exchange and remove lipid molecules to achieve incorporation, inducing swelling and the formation of solvent patches. It appears these behaviors derive from the structures of the anions and thus amphiphilicity of the DES, laying the foundations for the rational design and optimization of these candidates toward transdermal delivery.
Since iron is an important micronutrient, deposition of iron in mineral aerosols can impact the carbon cycle and atmospheric CO2. This paper reviews our current understanding of the global dust cycle ...and identifies future research needs. The global distribution of desert dust is estimated from a combination of observations of dust from in situ concentration, optical depth, and deposition data; observations from satellite; and global atmospheric models. The anthropogenically influenced portion of atmospheric desert dust flux is thought to be smaller than the natural portion, but is difficult to quantify due to the poorly understood response of desert dust to changes in climate, land use, and water use. The iron content of aerosols is thought to vary by a factor of 2, while the uncertainty in dust deposition is at least a factor of 10 in some regions due to the high spatial and temporal variability and limited observations. Importantly, we have a limited understanding of the processes by which relatively insoluble soil iron (typically ∼0.5% is soluble) becomes more soluble (1–80%) during atmospheric transport, but these processes could be impacted by anthropogenic emissions of sulfur or organic acids. In order to understand how humans will impact future iron deposition to the oceans, we need to improve our understanding of: iron deposition to remote oceans, iron chemistry in aerosols, how desert dust sources will respond to climate change, and how humans will impact the transport of bioavailable fraction of iron to the oceans.
For the past decade, droplet interface bilayers (DIBs) have had an increased prevalence in biomolecular and biophysical literature. However, much of the underlying physics of these platforms is ...poorly characterized. To further our understanding of these structures, lipid membrane tension on DIB membranes is measured by analysing the equilibrium shape of asymmetric DIBs. To this end, the morphology of DIBs is explored for the first time using confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy. The experimental results confirm that, in accordance with theory, the bilayer interface of a volume-asymmetric DIB is curved towards the smaller droplet and a lipid-asymmetric DIB is curved towards the droplet with the higher monolayer surface tension. Moreover, the DIB shape can be exploited to measure complex bilayer surface energies. In this study, the bilayer surface energy of DIBs composed of lipid mixtures of phosphatidylgylcerol (PG) and phosphatidylcholine are shown to increase linearly with PG concentrations up to 25%. The assumption that DIB bilayer area can be geometrically approximated as a spherical cap base is also tested, and it is discovered that the bilayer curvature is negligible for most practical symmetric or asymmetric DIB systems with respect to bilayer area.
Hemostatic defects are treated using coagulation factors; however, clot formation also requires a procoagulant phospholipid (PL) surface. Here, we show that innate immune cell-derived enzymatically ...oxidized phospholipids (eoxPL) termed hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid-phospholipids (HETE-PLs) restore hemostasis in human and murine conditions of pathological bleeding. HETE-PLs abolished blood loss in murine hemophilia A and enhanced coagulation in factor VIII- (FVIII-), FIX-, and FX-deficient human plasma . HETE-PLs were decreased in platelets from patients after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). To explore molecular mechanisms, the ability of eoxPL to stimulate individual isolated coagulation factor/cofactor complexes was tested in vitro. Extrinsic tenase (FVIIa/tissue factor TF), intrinsic tenase (FVIIIa/FIXa), and prothrombinase (FVa/FXa) all were enhanced by both HETE-PEs and HETE-PCs, suggesting a common mechanism involving the fatty acid moiety. In plasma, 9-, 15-, and 12-HETE-PLs were more effective than 5-, 11-, or 8-HETE-PLs, indicating positional isomer specificity. Coagulation was enhanced at lower lipid/factor ratios, consistent with a more concentrated area for protein binding. Surface plasmon resonance confirmed binding of FII and FX to HETE-PEs. HETE-PEs increased membrane curvature and thickness, but not surface charge or homogeneity, possibly suggesting increased accessibility to cations/factors. In summary, innate immune-derived eoxPL enhance calcium-dependent coagulation factor function, and their potential utility in bleeding disorders is proposed.
The first complex, highly organised, state-level societies emerged in the Afro-Asiatic monsoon belt and northern South America during the 6th and early 5th millennia BP. This was a period of profound ...climatic and environmental change in these regions and globally, characterised by a weakening of the global monsoon system and widespread aridification in regions that today contain the bulk of the world's warm deserts. This paper examines trajectories of socio-cultural and environmental change in six key regions in which complex societies emerged during the Middle Holocene: the central Sahara (focusing on the Libyan Fezzan), Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia (Indus–Sarasvati region), northern China and coastal Peru. Links between environmental and socio-cultural change are explored in the context of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data and a theoretical framework of increasing social complexity as a response to enhanced aridity, driven largely by population agglomeration in environmental refugia characterised by the presence of surface water. There is direct evidence of adaptation to increased aridity in the archaeological literature relating to the Sahara and Egypt. In the other regions examined, the data are consistent with the notion that increased social complexity was largely driven by environmental deterioration, although further local-scale archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data are required to clarify the processes involved.
The twenty-first century is likely to be characterised by large changes in regional climatic and environmental conditions, with implications for the availability and distribution of key resources ...such as water and productive land. While the implications of such changes for human societies are potentially profound, the empirical evidence base for understanding human-environment interactions focuses largely on the relatively recent past, during which examples of rapid and severe climate change are lacking. While there are no precise past analogues for twenty-first century climate change, the Middle Holocene Climatic Transition (MHCT), from about 6400-5000 years before present, provides us with an example of a period of large-scale global climatic reorganisation, punctuated by episodes of rapid and severe climate change, at a time when human societies were beginning to resemble those of today. A survey of archaeological and palaeo-environmental data from the northern hemisphere subtropics and other regions provides us with evidence for linked climatic, environmental and societal change during the MHCT. This evidence, the strength of which varies with location, allows us to construct convincing narratives of linked climatic, environmental and societal changes that accommodate a variety of responses and outcomes, and that are much more nuanced than narratives of the proposed climate-induced collapse of individual societies. Such synthetic studies that compare contexts across time and space can help us understand human-environment interactions during times of climatic disruption, while allowing for diverse outcomes and avoiding the pitfalls of climatic determinism.
•Adaptation interventions may reinforce, redistribute or create new vulnerability.•Retrofitting adaptation into existing development agendas risks maladaptation.•Overcoming these challenges demands ...engaging more deeply with vulnerability contexts.•Real involvement of marginalised groups is required to improve use of climate finance.•Unless adaptation is rethought, transformation may also worsen vulnerability.
This paper critically reviews the outcomes of internationally-funded interventions aimed at climate change adaptation and vulnerability reduction. It highlights how some interventions inadvertently reinforce, redistribute or create new sources of vulnerability. Four mechanisms drive these maladaptive outcomes: (i) shallow understanding of the vulnerability context; (ii) inequitable stakeholder participation in both design and implementation; (iii) a retrofitting of adaptation into existing development agendas; and (iv) a lack of critical engagement with how ‘adaptation success’ is defined. Emerging literature shows potential avenues for overcoming the current failure of adaptation interventions to reduce vulnerability: first, shifting the terms of engagement between adaptation practitioners and the local populations participating in adaptation interventions; and second, expanding the understanding of ‘local’ vulnerability to encompass global contexts and drivers of vulnerability. An important lesson from past adaptation interventions is that within current adaptation cum development paradigms, inequitable terms of engagement with ‘vulnerable’ populations are reproduced and the multi-scalar processes driving vulnerability remain largely ignored. In particular, instead of designing projects to change the practices of marginalised populations, learning processes within organisations and with marginalised populations must be placed at the centre of adaptation objectives. We pose the question of whether scholarship and practice need to take a post-adaptation turn akin to post-development, by seeking a pluralism of ideas about adaptation while critically interrogating how these ideas form part of the politics of adaptation and potentially the processes (re)producing vulnerability. We caution that unless the politics of framing and of scale are explicitly tackled, transformational interventions risk having even more adverse effects on marginalised populations than current adaptation.
Efforts to manufacture artificial cells that replicate the architectures, processes and behaviours of biological cells are rapidly increasing. Perhaps the most commonly reconstructed cellular ...structure is the membrane, through the use of unilamellar vesicles as models. However, many cellular membranes, including bacterial double membranes, nuclear envelopes, and organelle membranes, are multilamellar. Due to a lack of technologies available for their controlled construction, multilayered membranes are not part of the repertoire of cell‐mimetic motifs used in bottom‐up synthetic biology. To address this, we developed emulsion‐based technologies that allow cell‐sized multilayered vesicles to be produced layer‐by‐layer, with compositional control over each layer, thus enabling studies that would otherwise remain inaccessible. We discovered that bending rigidities scale with the number of layers and demonstrate inter‐bilayer registration between coexisting liquid–liquid domains. These technologies will contribute to the exploitation of multilayered membrane structures, paving the way for incorporating protein complexes that span multiple bilayers.
Running rings around vesicles: We describe a droplet‐based technology to manufacture cell‐sized multilamellar lipid vesicles. Individual membranes are assembled layer‐by‐layer, giving control over the number of induvial layers and their molecular content. We investigated how the biomechanical properties of the structures change with each added layer.
Climate change is a real and present threat to heritage across the world. In Europe and North America, research on the impacts of climate change on heritage, including how to mitigate against more ...frequent extreme weather events and how to implement efficient sustainable adaptation planning, are now key foci of heritage literature. In contrast, virtually nothing has been written about the impacts of climate change on heritage on the African continent, even though these will be significant in the coming decades. Heritage is essential for livelihoods, but also for the construction and reinforcement of identity and the psychological wellbeing of society. Here, we consider the impacts of climate change on different (connected) forms of heritage in Africa, including archaeological, historical and living heritage. We situate the implications of climate change for African heritage in recent debates around climate justice, sustainability and social wellbeing. We conclude that without significant intervention some of Africa's most important heritage will be lost as a result of the direct and indirect impacts of climate change over the coming decades. Our intention is to draw attention to the need for research into the impacts of climate change on different forms of heritage in Africa and to highlight the possible deleterious effects these losses will have on society more generally. We view this paper as a first step in developing a research agenda that will have a practical application for the management of heritage in the face of climate change in Africa.
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