Deltas are highly sensitive to increasing risks arising from local human activities, land subsidence, regional water management, global sea-level rise, and climate extremes. We quantified changing ...flood risk due to extreme events using an integrated set of global environmental, geophysical, and social indicators. Although risks are distributed across all levels of economic development, wealthy countries effectively limit their present-day threat by gross domestic product–enabled infrastructure and coastal defense investments. In an energy-constrained future, such protections will probably prove to be unsustainable, raising relative risks by four to eight times in the Mississippi and Rhine deltas and by one-and-a-half to four times in the Chao Phraya and Yangtze deltas. The current emphasis on short-term solutions for the world's deltas will greatly constrain options for designing sustainable solutions in the long term.
Metrics can inform investors wary of “green washing”
The practice of selecting and managing financial assets based on their social and environmental performance is undergoing rapid growth and ...fundamental change. Investors are increasingly pressed by asset owners to prove how one company's practices are materially more or less sustainable than those of another. Yet, the basic information that companies declare is hardly standardized and is difficult to verify, with unreliable assertions (
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) that are widely criticized as “green washing.” Metrics are mainly restricted to documenting changes to internal business practices but offer limited guidance on whether a company's actions, products, and services promote human well-being or preserve environmental integrity in the external, real-world domain, fueling reluctance on the part of otherwise enthusiastic investors (
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,
3
). It is here where science can play an important role. Our consortium of an asset owner, an asset manager, and two research universities is designing a next generation of traceable indicators to quantify external context and impact of investments and place these into a decision-making framework useful to investors. Tests of these science-based sustainability metrics are under way on a $2.1 billion portfolio of public equities invested on behalf of a large European pension fund.
Future changes in runoff can have important implications for water resources and flooding. In this study, runoff projections from ISI-MIP (Inter-sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project) ...simulations forced with HadGEM2-ES bias-corrected climate data under the Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 have been analysed for differences between impact models. Projections of change from a baseline period (1981–2010) to the future (2070–2099) from 12 impacts models which contributed to the hydrological and biomes sectors of ISI-MIP were studied. The biome models differed from the hydrological models by the inclusion of CO2 impacts and most also included a dynamic vegetation distribution. The biome and hydrological models agreed on the sign of runoff change for most regions of the world. However, in West Africa, the hydrological models projected drying, and the biome models a moistening. The biome models tended to produce larger increases and smaller decreases in regionally averaged runoff than the hydrological models, although there is large inter-model spread. The timing of runoff change was similar, but there were differences in magnitude, particularly at peak runoff. The impact of vegetation distribution change was much smaller than the projected change over time, while elevated CO2 had an effect as large as the magnitude of change over time projected by some models in some regions. The effect of CO2 on runoff was not consistent across the models, with two models showing increases and two decreases. There was also more spread in projections from the runs with elevated CO2 than with constant CO2. The biome models which gave increased runoff from elevated CO2 were also those which differed most from the hydrological models. Spatially, regions with most difference between model types tended to be projected to have most effect from elevated CO2, and seasonal differences were also similar, so elevated CO2 can partly explain the differences between hydrological and biome model runoff change projections. Therefore, this shows that a range of impact models should be considered to give the full range of uncertainty in impacts studies.
Although several works in the past have examined the effect of haemodialysis (HD) on intraocular pressure (IOP), reported findings, theories, and conclusions are very different. The objectives of ...this article are to resume the reported evidence of IOP changes during HD, to review the proposed hypothesis of HD influence on IOP, and to determine if ophthalmic examination is imperative in HD patients.
We analysed the peer-reviewed English literature and selected all possible relevant articles.
The influence of HD on IOP is not clear, and even in recent studies opposite findings can be found.
Future studies are needed to clarify the effects of HD on IOP. In patients with glaucoma or with predisposed narrow angles, or eyes with impaired aqueous outflow, the possibility of acute IOP rise during HD could be much more frequent than in normal patients. So in these patients, a more strict ophthalmic scheduled examination seems to be feasible.
E ditor ,-Flat anterior chamber (AC) is a significant complication following trabeculectomy, which can cause serious sequelae. 1 Treatment of flat AC may include drugs, torpedo dressing, or megasoft ...contact lens and reformation using hyaluronic acid, BSS, expandable gases, or air. 2 3 Between 1989 and 1996, 15 patients in our department underwent reformation of flat AC with sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) following a first standard Cairns trabeculectomy.
Intraocular pressure (IOP) increase soon after neodymium:YAG (Nd:YAG) treatments in the anterior segment has been reported. To evaluate this complication in a large sample of patients, we conducted a ...retrospective study of all Nd:YAG treatments during three years. Three hundred forty capsulotomies and 212 iridotomies were performed with the Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. An IOP elevation of 10 mm Hg or more within two hours of laser surgery was seen in 15 eyes (4.4%) that had a capsulotomy but in 45 eyes (21.2%) that had an iridotomy. In 13 of the 15 eyes in which the IOP increased after capsulotomy, additional risk factors (glaucoma, high myopia, aphakia) were found. Our results indicate that posterior capsulotomy with the Nd:YAG laser in otherwise healthy, pseudophakic eyes is usually not accompanied by immediate IOP elevation. Elevation can be predicted by risk factors and therefore anticipated in a small group of vulnerable patients.
Deltas are highly sensitive to increasing risks arising from local human activities, land subsidence, regional water management, global sea-level rise, and climate extremes. We quantified changing ...flood risk due to extreme events using an integrated set of global environmental, geophysical, and social indicators. Although risks are distributed across all levels of economic development, wealthy countries effectively limit their present-day threat by gross domestic product-enabled infrastructure and coastal defense investments. In an energy-constrained future, such protections will probably prove to be unsustainable, raising relative risks by four to eight times in the Mississippi and Rhine deltas and by one-and-a-half to four times in the Chao Phraya and Yangtze deltas. The current emphasis on short-term solutions for the world's deltas will greatly constrain options for designing sustainable solutions in the long term.
Early detection of glaucoma enables early initiation of treatment. Screening populations at risk is likely to help achieve this goal.
To increase public awareness regarding early detection of ...glaucoma, and estimate the prevalence of increased intraocular pressure (IOP) and optic disk cupping in the screened population.
A public awareness campaign was carried out in Israel during the 2009 and 2010 World Glaucoma Week, culminating each year in a one-day, free-of-charge screening of individuals in 13 outreach public locations. Screening was performed by 45 ophthalmologists and included a brief medical history, slit-lamp exam with measurement of intraocular pressure (IOP), and evaluation of cup/disk ratio.
A total of 2560 individuals were screened; the mean age was 59 +/- 13 years. IOP > or = 21 mmHg was found in 4.8%, and 12.3% had cupping > or = 0.5. IOP > or = 21 mmHg together with cupping > or = 0.5 were present in 1.4% and this rate increased with age: 3.7% of cases in the age group > or = 70 years compared to 1% and 0.6% in the age groups 50-69 and < 50 years, respectively (P < 0.001). Likewise, the prevalence of cupping > or = 0.7 and of IOP > or = 24 mmHg increased significantly with age. The prevalence of IOP > or = 21 mmHg increased in cases with a family history of glaucoma in first-degree relatives (10.5% compared to 3.9%, P < 0.001). The prevalence of IOP > or = 21 mmHg was also increased in diabetic patients (8.3% vs. 4.3% in non-diabetics, P = 0.002). Further ophthalmologic evaluation was recommended to 13% of the screened individuals.
Outreach screening for glaucoma is a valuable tool for detecting glaucoma, pre-perimetric glaucoma, or ocular hypertension in a meaningful number of previously undiagnosed cases. Yet, cost-effectiveness issues should also be considered. The yield of such screening increases with age and seems to be most advantageous in cases with diabetes or a family history of glaucoma.
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