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A prototype ampere-class superconducting energy recovery linac (ERL) is under advanced construction at BNL. The ERL facility is comprised of a five-cell SC Linac plus a half-cell SC photo-injector RF electron gun, both operating at 703.75 MHz. The facility is designed for either a high-current mode of operation up to 0.5 A at 703.75 MHz or a high-bunch-charge mode of 5 nC at 10 MHz bunch frequency. The R facility serves a test bed for an envisioned electron-hadron collider, eRHIC. The high-current, high-charge operating parameters make effective higher-order-mode (HOM) damping mandatory, and requires to determination of HOM tolerances for a cavity upgrade. The niobium cavity has been tested at superconducting temperatures and has provided measured dipole shunt impedances for the estimate of a beam breakup instability. The facility will be assembled with a highly flexible lattice covering a vast operational parameter space for verification of the estimates and to serve as a test bed for the concepts directed at future projects. Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

Despite being a global problem, climate change has disproportionately large impacts on non-Western countries in the form of extreme weather events, threats to food security, and displacement of communities. Climate change mitigation is therefore an immediate priority requiring both international and local efforts. Motivating public action is especially important because pro-climate policies require public mandate to be approved and implemented. Behavioural scientists have identified communication strategies that can effectively motivate public support for climate action. However, most of this research has been conducted on Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic (or WEIRD) populations, making it unclear if these strategies can be applied elsewhere. In this perspective, we discuss climate change communication strategies that have been developed on WEIRD samples. These include using partisan messengers, conveying social norms, and citing experts. We posit that these climate communication strategies developed in Western societies may not be applicable in other populations. We then consider the cases of two countries–the Czech Republic and India to discuss how context-specific insights about citizens’ priorities, concerns, and experiences with nature can be used to communicate climate change. We build on these case studies to propose INCLUDE, a framework that can be adopted by communicators such as policymakers, elected officials, scientists, and activists in non-WEIRD societies to develop effective climate communication strategies informed by context specific and culture-specific insights.

Tower blocks in UK are at a critical stage. They were built at a time when no energy efficiency requirements were considered. They are now approaching the end of their design service life and they are damp, and cold place to live. Starting from the analysis about the diffusion of multi-storey buildings in EU, and the findings of other research projects such as INSPIRE and Faro, this work debates the strategies applied for energy efficiency improvement of large panel concrete buildings. This work debates the structural retrofit that in many cases are required prior to any energy retrofit intervention and draw the attention on the necessity to develop more holistic retrofit approaches, aiming to the development of best practice for energy, safety and social benefits. TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, TECHNE: Special Series Vol. 1

How fast do archaeological deposits, soil features and artefacts degrade? Is it possible to preserve archaeological remains in situ without significant loss of information potential? Modern archaeology and heritage management needs to prepare for and respond to modern climate change, causing higher temperatures, increased and more concentrated precipitation events and changes from snow to rain which may lead to an irrevocable loss of information. This paper suggests sets of threshold levels and threat evaluations of heritage sites, possible mitigation and management strategies, on a basis of archaeological observations and results of palaeoecological and geochemical analyses of archaeological deposits from rural sites in northernmost Norway, combined with climate data and continuous monitoring of soil temperature, moisture and redox potential in sections. This data, collected in an interdisciplinary research project, constitutes the basic research material for evaluations of conservation state and preservation conditions. Decay studies indicate that many site types may be at risk with the predicted climate change. The results have consequences for heritage management of a large number of sites from all periods.

Environmental refugees are produced when the human population growth exceeds the carrying capacity of the region or when natural resources are diminished due to droughts, floods, or other types of climate change. Although refugees seek better living conditions, they may cause an overload of the carrying capacity of the new region. As a consequence, their efforts will have been futile, as well as being a danger to the inhabitants of the new era. Supplementary information is included in a separate file

Humans, thanks to their modern technology and cheap, abundant fossil energy, are changing the climate and as a result are playing a major role in the extinction of and reduction of the population sizes of many species. Extinction can occur suddenly, slowly, or it can be a result of long-term incremental changes in the habitat that are characteristic of long-term cycles on Earth. Humankind is delusional in believing that its technology will save it from extinction, just as I was delusional when I believed that humankind would be willing to change its lifestyle to achieve sustainable use of the planet.

Evaluation improves the quality of work completed by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to fight poverty and develop communities (Liebenthal et al. 2004). Even so, many NGOs do not conduct evaluations (Ferguson 1990). To the extent that NGOs evaluate their efforts, the evaluation results often do not affect the planning of future projects, making evaluation a static event instead of a learning process (Mebrahtu 2002). Thus, the relevant problem is how to make evaluation more useful. Mulwa (2008) argues that participatory evaluation bridges the disconnect between evaluation results and future development projects. Based on my experience, I emphasize the need for development evaluation to be practical; evaluations informed by all stakeholders create a climate of learning. Evaluations lead to improved development when the evaluation responsibilities and measurements are shared between all parties involved. Consilience, No 6 (2011): Issue Six: 2011

Linac Energy Management (LEM) is a control system program which calculates, and optionally implements, magnet setpoint settings (BDESs) following a change in Energy (such as a change in the number, phase, and amplitude of active klystrons). The change is made relative to those magnets’ existing BDES setpoints by a factor encoding the change in energy. LEM is necessary because changes in the number, phase, and amplitude of the active klystrons (the so-called "Klystron complement") change the beam’s rigidity, and therefore, to maintain constant optics, one has to change focusing gradients and bend fields. This paper describes the basic process and some of the implementation lessons learned for LEM at the LCLS. Proceedings of the 1st International Particle Accelerator Conference, IPAC2010, Kyoto, Japan

This paper explores the monitoring and evaluation system of the Millennium Villages Project in Potou, rural Senegal. It specifically focuses on the first evaluation report undertaken in 2009 after three years of intervention to assess the impacts of the project on communities in Potou. Theory of change, causal attribution, scaling-up, use of evaluation, and learning are the key issues that are addressed throughout the paper. Interviews with beneficiaries and project staff as well as the analysis of the project’s evaluation report revealed that the project has created many positive impacts in the communities of Potou. However, unintended negative results have been observed in the sectors of education, health, and agriculture. Given the weaknesses that have been identified in the evaluation method, this paper suggests some strategies to strengthen the methodology of future evaluations, thus allowing for distinct attribution of the impacts to the project. Consilience, No 9 (2013): Issue Nine: 2013