No abstract

In the face of uncertainties associated with climate change, building adaptive capacity and resilience at the community level emerges as an essential and timely element of local planning. However, key social factors that facilitate the effective building and maintenance of urban resilience are poorly understood. Two groups of US cities differing markedly in their commitment to climate change are contrasted with respect to their planning approaches and actions related to mitigation and adaptation strategies, and also in relation to social features that are believed to enhance adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change. The first group manifests a strong commitment to climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the second group has demonstrated little or no such commitment. These cities are compared with respect to several noteworthy social features, including level of social capital, degree of unconventional thought, and level of cultural diversity. These characteristics are postulated to contribute to the adaptive capacity of communities for dealing with the impacts of climate change. The aim is to determine to what extent there is a relationship between social/cultural structures and urban commitment and planning for climate change that could discriminate between climate change resilient and nonresilient urban areas.

In recent times, plastic production has increased due to the convenience and multipurpose use. As plastic may make lifeeasier on humans, the amount of plastic debris has increased as well as the effect on marine life. Since it is a relatively new topic,the effects on marine species are trying to be modeled in laboratories and observed in the field. The effects of plastic marine debrisinclude but are not limited to entanglement, ingestion, possible bioaccumulation, chemical exposures, and even death. Larger plasticscan become smaller particles, microplastics, which are difficult to study the effects on marine life due to the small size. Microplasticsare a global issue that effect species. Some of the factors that are considered of why different organisms ingest plastics include:method of feeding, color, age, and accidental/secondary ingestion. The focus of this research article is the ingestion of averagepercentage of microplastics of seabird species compared to other marine species throughout the world.

Con el fin de reducir el impacto que tiene al depositar los desechos sólidos en el ambiente y conociendo la problemática que hay en Panamá en temas de basura, se plantea la utilización del plástico como elemento reforzador del concreto en la construcción de elementos de acera. Para tal efecto se construyeron especímenes y se sometieron a pruebas para determinar si es viable la implementación de este método. Para la mezcla se utilizó 9 Kg/m3 de plástico, en la que este porcentaje fue escogido con referencia a los ensayos realizados en la investigación Estudio de Propiedades Mecánicas del Concreto reforzado con fibras de polipropileno reciclado, trabajo realizado por el Ingeniero Carlos González.

Anthropogenic activity has long been labeled as the leading cause of soil destabilization. However, natural factors including soil erosion and excess rainfall have also been some of the main causes of landslides. Panama is a country with a tropical climate and has a variety of soils that are susceptible to weakening by rainfall. Some contain a considerable amount of clay (Acrisols, Nitisols) while others do not (Andosols). Either kinds of soil are structurally weakened by large amounts of rain. The landslides produced by the destabilization of these soils have caused much damage in Panama. Chiriqui is a province that has seen an increase in landslides. This study, using historical meteorological and disaster data from 1985 until 2010, was focused on determining the relationship between the amount of average rainfall and the frequency of landslides in Chiriqui. The study found that Bugaba experienced the highest number of landslides during the study period and received considerable rainfall.