世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

Cause, conseguenze e strategie di mitigazione Proponiamo il primo di una serie di articoli in cui affronteremo l’attuale problema dei mutamenti climatici. Presentiamo il documento redatto, votato e pubblicato dall’Ipcc - Comitato intergovernativo sui cambiamenti climatici - che illustra la sintesi delle ricerche svolte su questo tema rilevante.

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Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis.

Lithium metal is one of the most attractive anode materials for electrochemical energy storage. However, the growth of Li dendrites during electrochemical deposition, which leads to a low Coulombic efficiency and safety concerns, has long hindered the application of rechargeable Li-metal batteries. Here we show that a 3D current collector with a submicron skeleton and high electroactive surface area can significantly improve the electrochemical deposition behaviour of Li. Li anode is accommodated in the 3D structure without uncontrollable Li dendrites. With the growth of Li dendrites being effectively suppressed, the Li anode in the 3D current collector can run for 600 h without short circuit and exhibits low voltage hysteresis. The exceptional electrochemical performance of the Li-metal anode in the 3D current collector highlights the importance of rational design of current collectors and reveals a new avenue for developing Li anodes with a long lifespan.

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Accommodating lithium into 3D current collectors with a submicron skeleton towards long-life lithium metal anodes.

On behalf of Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, it is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this international scientific conference. Drylands are often considered fragile ecosystems, yet they have a remarkable resilience to stress. They are home to unique and well-adapted plant and animal species that we need to conserve. Some of the world’s greatest cultures and belief systems have originated in drylands. On the other hand, desertification and land degradation in drylands often result in poverty and cause environmental refugees to abandon their homes. These problems can only be addressed in a holistic manner, based on sound scientific research and findings. Solutions to the problems of dryland degradation need to be communicated as widely as possible through education at all levels. These are many reasons why UNESCO – within its mandate of science, education, culture and communication – took the intiative to organize this conference. And we are glad that so many partners have responded to our call. UNESCO considers this conference as its main contribution to the observance of the International Year of Deserts and Desertification in 2006. We have deliberately chosen the title ‘The Future of Drylands’ as we feel it is time to redefine our priorities for science, education and governance in the drylands based on 50 years of scientific research in arid and semi-arid zones. In fact UNESCO has one of the longest traditions, within the UN system, of addressing dryland problems from an interdisciplinary, scientific point of view. In 1955, the ‘International Arid Land Meetings’ were held in Socorro, New Mexico (USA). They were organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), sponsored by UNESCO and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. One important output of the International Arid Land Meetings was a book entitled The Future of Drylands, edited by Gilbert F. White and published in

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Statistical Databases

Contents: Foreword Preface Household vulnerability and resilience to shocks in Melanesia: an overview, Simon Feeny and May Miller-Dawkins Coconut trees in a cyclone: vulnerability and resilience in a Melanesian context, Lachlan McDonald Responding to shocks: women's experiences of economic shocks in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, Jaclyn Donahue, Kate Eccles and May Miller-Dawkins Mobility and economic resilience in Melanesia, Alberto Posso and Matthew Clarke Vulnerability to what? Multidimensional poverty in Melanesia, Matthew Clarke, Simon Feeny and Lachlan McDonald Vulnerability, resilience and dynamism of the customary economy in Melanesia, Lachlan McDonald, Vijay Naidu and Manoranjan Mohanty Vulnerability and resilience in Melanesia: a case for formal social protection?, Simon Feeny Index.

Household Vulnerability and Resilience to Economic Shocks: Findings from Melanesia

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the principal determinants of women’s employment in the manufacturing sector of Bangladesh using a firm-level panel data from the World Bank’s “Enterprise Survey” for the years 2007, 2011 and 2013. The paper sheds light on the demand-side factors, mainly firm-level characteristics, which also influence this decision. Design/methodology/approach – The authors estimate a fractional logit model to model a dependent variable that is limited by zero from below and one from above. Findings – The results indicate that firm size, whether medium or large, and firms’ export-oriented activities, have an important impact on women’s employment in the manufacturing sector in Bangladesh. Moreover, the authors find that women are significantly more likely to work in unskilled-labour-intensive industries within the manufacturing sector. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to Bangladesh; however, much of the evidence presented here has implicatio...

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What firm characteristics determine women ' s employment in manufacturing? Evidence from Bangladesh

A more holistic understanding of the benefits of sight-restoring cataract surgery requires a focus that goes beyond income and employment, to include a wider array of well-being measures The objective of this study is to examine the monetary and non-monetary benefits of cataract surgery on both patients as well as their caregivers in Vietnam Participants were randomly recruited from a Ho-Chi-Minh City Hospital A total of 82 cataract patients and 83 caregivers participated in the survey conducted for this study Paired t-tests, Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests, and regression analysis are used to detect any statistically significant differences in various measures of well-being for patients and caregivers before and after surgery There are statistically significant improvements in monetary and non-monetary measures of well-being for both patients and caregivers approximately three months after undergoing cataract surgery, compared with baseline assessments collected prior to surgery Non-monetary measures of well-being include self-assessments of overall health, mental health, hope, self-efficacy, happiness and life satisfaction For patients, the benefits included statistically significant improvements in earnings, mobility, self-care, the ability to undertake daily activities, self-assessed health and mental health, life satisfaction, hope, and self-efficacy (p<001) For caregivers, attendance at work improved alongside overall health, mental health, hope, self-efficacy, happiness and life satisfaction, three months post-surgery (p<001) Restoring sight has positive impacts for those suffering from cataracts and their caregivers Sometimes the benefits are almost equal in their magnitude The study has also demonstrated that many of these impacts are non-monetary in nature It is clear that estimates of the rate of return to restoring sight that focus only on financial gains will underestimate the true returns to society of restoring sight from cataract surgeries

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Beyond monetary benefits of restoring sight in Vietnam: Evaluating well-being gains from cataract surgery

As we approach the 2015 date by which the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are to be achieved, there is increasing scrutiny as to the progress towards their achievement. The MDGs were intended to be global targets and not necessarily to be assessed at the country level. In other words, countries were to contribute to the global targets but not be held to account against them, as they were originally conceived. In practice though, countries are assessed against the global MDG targets. It is appropriate that continuing interest be paid to the achievement of the MDGs, however it is also necessary that the global community now start to turn its attention to what framework for addressing the world's development needs beyond the MDG timeframe following 2015. The ‘poverty landscape’ has changed significantly in the last decade – partly as a result of the international community's focus on the MDGs – and so it is necessary that a new approach to poverty alleviation reflect this changed reality. This paper intro...

Old challenges and new opportunities for the MDGs : now and beyond 2015

Should Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) be the tool for implementing the new Sustainable Development Goals, as they were for the Millennium Development Goals? Surprisingly, despite the controversies around them, there has never been a quantitative evaluation of PRSPs. This paper estimates the impact of having a PRSP on various targets of the Millennium Development Goals. Results suggest that countries under PRSP treatment achieve much greater reductions than control countries, in head count poverty and infant mortality, while also achieving greater improvements in primary school enrolments and gender parity.

Simon Feeny

Papers

Household Vulnerability and Resilience to Economic Shocks: Findings from Melanesia

What firm characteristics determine women ' s employment in manufacturing? Evidence from Bangladesh

Beyond monetary benefits of restoring sight in Vietnam: Evaluating well-being gains from cataract surgery

Old challenges and new opportunities for the MDGs : now and beyond 2015

Are poverty reduction strategy papers associated with reductions in poverty and improvements in wellbeing