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Today, coastal cities worldwide are struggling with the complex interaction of environmental threats, economic development, and societal inequity. The acceleration of global climate change, which will impact ocean health, sea level, rainfall patterns, and temperatures, will only further exacerbate the ongoing challenges faced by coastal cities. Coastal cities face interconnected risks that necessitate the use of a data collection and an assessment approach that can assess these impacts through a holistic lens. Risk is the interaction of hazards, exposure, and vulnerability, and while data on hazards and exposure is becoming more widely available, data on the vulnerability of urban coastal populations remains limited. These data gaps are particularly acute for the Global South, where climate change is expected to have the greatest near-term impacts. Policymakers need city-specific data to best understand their levels of risk and engage in effective adaptation planning. This paper introduces the Climate and Ocean Risk Vulnerability Index (CORVI), its conceptual framework, methodology, and protocol. The article also demonstrates the application of CORVI through two pilot projects in Castries, Saint Lucia and Kingston, Jamaica. It concludes with a reflection of lessons learned from the pilot projects, and an assessment of the utility of the structured expert judgement (SEJ) for collecting data and measuring risk in data sparse environments. This paper makes two primary contributions. First it introduces CORVI, a decision support tool that assesses climate risk and resilience in a coastal city. The tool uses the SEJ methodology to display risk scores across 10 risk categories and 94 indicators addressing ecological, financial, and political risk. Second, it demonstrates the use of the SEJ methodology in data sparse environments.

Recent studies have proposed that n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) have direct antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in vascular tissue, explaining their cardioprotective effects. However, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. We tested whether n-3 PUFAs showed antioxidant activity through the activation of nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a master transcriptional factor for antioxidant genes. C57BL/6 or Nrf2(-/-) mice were fed a fish-oil diet for 3 weeks. Fish-oil diet significantly increased the expression of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), and endothelium-dependent vasodilation in the aorta of C57BL/6 mice, but not in the Nrf2(-/-) mice. Furthermore, we observed that 4-hydroxy hexenal (4-HHE), an end-product of n-3 PUFA peroxidation, was significantly increased in the aorta of C57BL/6 mice, accompanied by intra-aortic predominant increase in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) rather than that in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Human umbilical vein endothelial cells were incubated with DHA or EPA. We found that DHA, but not EPA, markedly increased intracellular 4-HHE, and nuclear expression and DNA binding of Nrf2. Both DHA and 4-HHE also increased the expressions of Nrf2 target genes including HO-1, and the siRNA of Nrf2 abolished these effects. Furthermore, DHA prevented oxidant-induced cellular damage or reactive oxygen species production, and these effects were disappeared by an HO-1 inhibitor or the siRNA of Nrf2. Thus, we found protective effects of DHA through Nrf2 activation in vascular tissue, accompanied by intra-vascular increases in 4-HHE, which may explain the mechanism of the cardioprotective effects of DHA.

Little is known about the extent to which climate change drives migration from the Pacific atoll nation of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). How and to what extent the youth of RMI aspire to migrate to other countries was investigated through a survey of 106 students at the Marshall Islands Campus of the University of the South Pacific (RMI-USP). While 44% of respondents indicated an aspiration to move abroad either for study or employment, and most students were well aware of the adverse effects of climate change, climate change was not cited as the primary reason or motivation for migration. Analysis of data in a second study explored the University's tracking data of Foundation Year graduates fromthe RMI-USP Joint Education Program. This analysis found that students who have studied abroad are more likely to have the opportunity to either stay abroad or to migrate at some time after their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People from Kiribati, especially after obtaining college degrees, tend to have a desire to migrate abroad to obtain further education and good jobs and, to some extent, due to the impacts of climate change. Nineteen percent of I-Kiribati migrants in Fiji who responded to our survey indicated climate change as a factor for their migration, but their primary reasons were to seek better education and employment. When seeking employment, their lack of English-language skills and professional qualifications posed challenges. However, those who had prepared well in advance tend to find jobs relatively smoothly after migration. When settling in a new area, people tended to rely on family connections, community groups, and other social supports as sources of network and safety net. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]