WorldWideScience

Sample records for living common resources

  1. Sustainability of common pool resources

    OpenAIRE

    Timilsina, Raja Rajendra; Kotani, Koji; Kamijo, Yoshio

    2017-01-01

    Sustainability has become a key issue in managing natural resources together with growing concerns for capitalism, environmental and resource problems. We hypothesize that the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, which we refer to as "capitalism," affects human nature for utilizing common pool resources, thus compromising sustainability. To test this hypothesis, we design and implement a set of dynamic common pool resource games and experiments in the following two types of Nepales...

  2. Sustainability of common pool resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timilsina, Raja Rajendra; Kotani, Koji; Kamijo, Yoshio

    2017-01-01

    Sustainability has become a key issue in managing natural resources together with growing concerns for capitalism, environmental and resource problems. We hypothesize that the ongoing modernization of competitive societies, which we refer to as "capitalism," affects human nature for utilizing common pool resources, thus compromising sustainability. To test this hypothesis, we design and implement a set of dynamic common pool resource games and experiments in the following two types of Nepalese areas: (i) rural (non-capitalistic) and (ii) urban (capitalistic) areas. We find that a proportion of prosocial individuals in urban areas is lower than that in rural areas, and urban residents deplete resources more quickly than rural residents. The composition of proself and prosocial individuals in a group and the degree of capitalism are crucial in that an increase in prosocial members in a group and the rural dummy positively affect resource sustainability by 65% and 63%, respectively. Overall, this paper shows that when societies move toward more capitalistic environments, the sustainability of common pool resources tends to decrease with the changes in individual preferences, social norms, customs and views to others through human interactions. This result implies that individuals may be losing their coordination abilities for social dilemmas of resource sustainability in capitalistic societies.

  3. Conservation of living resources in a changing world

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teer, James G.

    1996-11-01

    Conservation of living resources is no longer parochial in scope; it is a global challenge. Ecological, social, political, and business interests operate in a network that reaches across seas, continents, and nations. Industries, including the electric utility industry, are diversifying in products and expanding into international markets. They soon discover that, while all nations have common goals for their peoples, conservation and environmental issues in less-developed nations have different dimensions and norms than are encountered in Western, affluent societies. In developing countries, survival is more of an issue than quality of life, and burgeoning human numbers have put tremendous pressures on resources including wildlife and its habitats. Human population, urbanization of society, changes in single-species to ecosystem and landscape levels of management, and protectionists and animal rights philosophies are influences with which conservation of resources and the environment must contend. The human condition and conservation efforts are inextricably linked. Examples to demonstrate this fact are given for Project Tiger in India, the jaguar in Latin America, and the Serengeti ecosystem in Kenya and Tanzania.

  4. The promise of common pool resource theory and the reality of commons projects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fred P. Saunders

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Commons projects, such as community-based natural resource management, have widespread appeal, which has enabled them to shrug off a mixed performance in practice. This paper discusses how the theoretical assumptions of common pool resource (CPR theory may have inadvertently contributed to the unfulfilled expectations of commons projects. The paper argues that the individual ‘rational resource user’, encapsulated in the CPR design principles, struggles to provide clear direction for meaningful consideration of local norms, values and interests in commons projects. The focus of CPR theory on efficiency and functionality results in a tendency in commons projects to overlook how local conditions are forged through relations at multiple scales. Commonly politically complex and changing relations are reduced to institutional design problems based on deriving the incentives and disincentives of ‘rational resource users. The corollary is that CPR theory oversimplifies the project context that it is seeking to change because it offers little or no direction to deal with the social embeddedness of resource use or implications of different stratifications.

  5. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Diabetes HealthSense provides easy access to resources to help you live well and meet your goals—whether ... be overwhelming, but you can reach out for help. People living with diabetes share their stories about ...

  6. Common Property Resource Management, Institutional Change and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Common Property Resource Management, Institutional Change and ... Most contemporary discussions on African development since independence forty ... theories on CPR Resource Management in a specific ecological and political setting.

  7. Design principles for global commons: Natural resources and emerging technologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul C. Stern

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Ostrom’s design principles for managing common pool resources were developed largely by examining local commons involving natural resources. This paper enumerates several key characteristics that distinguish such commons from more complex commons involving global resources and the risks of emerging technologies. It considers the degree to which the design principles transfer to those commons and concludes that although they have considerable external validity, the list needs some modification and elaboration to apply to global resources and risk commons. A list of design principles is offered for global resource commons and the risks of emerging technologies. Applying Ostrom’s approach to global resources and emerging technologies can improve understanding and expand the solution set for these problems from international treaties, top-down national regulation, and interventions in market pricing systems to include non-governmental institutions that embody principles of self-governance.

  8. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... can occur if diabetes is not managed properly. People living with diabetes share their stories about hyperglycemia ... low blood sugar, is a common problem for people living with diabetes. Learn more about the symptoms, ...

  9. Household-level heterogeneity of water resources within common-pool resource systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    McCord, Paul; Dell'angelo, Jampel; Gower, Drew; Caylor, Kelly K.; Evans, Tom

    2017-01-01

    Prior work has demonstrated the ability of common property systems to sustain institutional arrangements governing natural resources over long periods of time. Much of this work has focused on irrigation systems where upstream users agree to management arrangements that distribute water resources

  10. Common Ambient Assisted Living Home Platform for Seamless Care

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wagner, Stefan Rahr; Stenner, Rene; Memon, Mukhtiar

    The CareStore project is investigating the feasibility of creating an open and flexible infrastructure for facilitating seamless deployment of assisted living devices and applications on heterogeneous platforms. The Common Ambient Assisted Living Home Platform (CAALHP) is intended to be the main ...

  11. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... E-MAIL UPDATES External Link Disclaimer National Diabetes ... Diabetes HealthSense provides easy access to resources to help you live well and meet your goals—whether you have diabetes or are at risk ...

  12. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... unmute Watch more videos from NDEP Selected Resources Need help getting started, or feeling overwhelmed? Take a ... Journey for Control This website is filled with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for ...

  13. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the text smaller. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HOME | CONTACT US | ... HealthSense Title/Keywords: Go Diabetes HealthSense provides easy access to resources to help you live well and meet your ...

  14. Making the Common Good Common

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chase, Barbara

    2011-01-01

    How are independent schools to be useful to the wider world? Beyond their common commitment to educate their students for meaningful lives in service of the greater good, can they educate a broader constituency and, thus, share their resources and skills more broadly? Their answers to this question will be shaped by their independence. Any…

  15. NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Data Base

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — In 1985, NOAA launched the Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Program to develop a consistent data base on the distribution, relative abundance, and life...

  16. Collaborative development of an educational resource on rehabilitation for people living with HIV.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Solomon, Patricia; Salbach, Nancy M; O'Brien, Kelly K; Nixon, Stephanie; Worthington, Catherine; Baxter, Larry; Tattle, Stephen; Gervais, Nicole

    2017-07-12

    The objective of this study is to describe the collaborative development of a rehabilitation guide for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which was adapted from an online resource for clinicians. We adapted a comprehensive evidence-informed online clinical resource for people living with HIV using a three-phase participatory process. In Phase 1, we interviewed 26 clinicians and 16 people living with HIV to gather recommendations on how to adapt and format the content to benefit people living with HIV. In Phase 2, we adapted the patient education resource using the recommendations that emerged from Phase 1. Phase 3 consisted of comprehensive stakeholder review of the revised resource on the adaptability, usability, communicability, and relevance of the information. Stakeholders participated in an interview to obtain in-depth information on their perspectives. Transcribed interviews underwent qualitative content analysis. Stakeholders indicated that the e-guide had utility for people living with HIV, community HIV service organizations, and care providers. Engaging people living with HIV resulted in a more relevant and meaningful resource that incorporated patients' values, needs, and preferences. Involving multiple stakeholders and user groups in the adaptation and evaluation of online patient education resources can assist in meeting patients' needs through increasing the relevance, organization and presentation of the content, and incorporating patients' values and needs. Implications for Rehabilitation Online patient education resources should be adapted in order to maximize relevance and meaningfulness to patients. Involving multiple stakeholders in the adaptation and evaluation of online patient education resources can assist in meeting patients' needs. Involving multiple stakeholders increases the relevance, organization and presentation of the content and allows the incorporation of patient values and needs. This collaborative approach with

  17. Institutional property rights structure, common pool resource (CPR), tragedy of the urban commons: A Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ling, G.; Ho, C. S.; Ali, H. M.

    2014-02-01

    There have been a plethora of researches on the significance of public open space (POS) in contributing to societies' sustainability. However, by virtue of identified maladaptive policy-based-property rights structure, such a shared good becomes vulnerable to tragedy of the urban commons (overexploitation) that subsequently leads to burgeoning number of mismanaged POS e.g., degraded and unkempt urban public spaces. By scrutinising the literatures within property rights domain and commons resources, an objective is highlighted in this paper which is to insightfully discourse institutional property rights structure pertaining to the mechanism, roles and interrelationship between property-rights regimes, bundle of property rights and resource domains; types of goods on how they act upon and tie in the POS with the social quandary. In summary, urban POS tragedy can potentially be triggered by the institutional structure especially if the ownership is left under open-access resource regime and ill-defined property rights which both successively constitute the natures of Common Pool Resource (CPR) within the commons, POS. Therefore, this paper sparks an idea to policy makers that property rights structure is a determinant in sustainably governing the POS in which adaptive assignment of property regimes and property rights are impelled.

  18. Institutional property rights structure, common pool resource (CPR), tragedy of the urban commons: A Review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ling, G; Ho, C S; Ali, H M

    2014-01-01

    There have been a plethora of researches on the significance of public open space (POS) in contributing to societies' sustainability. However, by virtue of identified maladaptive policy-based-property rights structure, such a shared good becomes vulnerable to tragedy of the urban commons (overexploitation) that subsequently leads to burgeoning number of mismanaged POS e.g., degraded and unkempt urban public spaces. By scrutinising the literatures within property rights domain and commons resources, an objective is highlighted in this paper which is to insightfully discourse institutional property rights structure pertaining to the mechanism, roles and interrelationship between property-rights regimes, bundle of property rights and resource domains; types of goods on how they act upon and tie in the POS with the social quandary. In summary, urban POS tragedy can potentially be triggered by the institutional structure especially if the ownership is left under open-access resource regime and ill-defined property rights which both successively constitute the natures of Common Pool Resource (CPR) within the commons, POS. Therefore, this paper sparks an idea to policy makers that property rights structure is a determinant in sustainably governing the POS in which adaptive assignment of property regimes and property rights are impelled

  19. Psychological interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder in people living with HIV in Resource poor settings: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Verhey, Ruth; Chibanda, Dixon; Brakarsh, Jonathan; Seedat, Soraya

    2016-10-01

    Post-traumatic stress disorder is pervasive in low- and middle-income countries. There is evidence to suggest that post-traumatic stress disorder is more common among people living with HIV than non-infected matched controls. We carried out a systematic review of interventions for adult post-traumatic stress disorder from resource poor settings with a focus on people living with HIV. We included all studies that investigated interventions for adult post-traumatic stress disorder from resource poor settings with a focus on interventions that were either randomised controlled trials or observational cohort studies carried out from 1980 to May 2015. Of the 25 articles that were identified for full review, two independent reviewers identified seven studies that met our study inclusion criteria. All randomised controlled trials (RCT) (n = 6) used cognitive behavioural therapy-based interventions and focused on people living with HIV in resource poor settings. There was only one study focusing on the use of lay counsellors to address post-traumatic stress disorder but core competencies were not described. There were no intervention studies from Africa, only an observational cohort study from Rwanda. Rigorously evaluated interventions for adult post-traumatic stress disorder in people living with HIV are rare. Most were undertaken in resource poor settings located in high-income countries. There is a need for research on the development and implementation of appropriate interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder in people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  20. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Hyperglycemia and Diabetes 2 Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, can occur if diabetes is not managed properly. ... Hypoglycemia and Diabetes 4 Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, is a common problem for people living with ...

  1. A common-pool resource experiment in acequia communities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nejem Raheem

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available Farmers and rural advocates in New Mexico assert that traditional irrigators are better adapted to water scarcity and variability than other communities. Data to actually test this are often scarce, but such information could be useful for planning the state’s water future, especially as climate change predictions tend toward less reliable supplies. This paper reports results from a common pool resource (CPR experiment that simulates irrigating behavior using two groups: rural irrigators and undergraduate students. Despite predictions to the opposite, there was no significant difference between mean withdrawals or predictions of other players’ behavior. On average, both groups withdrew above the social optimum but below the Nash equilibrium. This work appears to be the first example of a common pool resource experiment conducted with traditional New Mexican irrigators.

  2. Managing common resources in local and global systems. Applying theory across scales

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karlsson, Sylvia [ed.

    1998-12-31

    The main point brought forward in this publication is the productiveness of applying theoretical elements, developed within common property resource (CPR) literature, to a broader field of cases on different scales. The common framework for the contributions is a series of seminars held at the Department of Water and Environmental Studies in the spring of 1996, covering expanding work during the last decade on common property resource (CPR) management. It is obvious that there were a broad range of definitions of the concept CPR in the literature. The common pool/property resource concepts are both used, often depending on the resource studied, and authors in this volume have used both terms accordingly. Certain points are raised from empirical cases presented in this volume that are partly missing or not thoroughly stressed in other work in the area of CPR management and which crystallized much clearer when contrasting the situation for cases from different scales. Separate abstracts have been performed for five of the seven contributions

  3. Managing common resources in local and global systems. Applying theory across scales

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Karlsson, Sylvia [ed.

    1997-12-31

    The main point brought forward in this publication is the productiveness of applying theoretical elements, developed within common property resource (CPR) literature, to a broader field of cases on different scales. The common framework for the contributions is a series of seminars held at the Department of Water and Environmental Studies in the spring of 1996, covering expanding work during the last decade on common property resource (CPR) management. It is obvious that there were a broad range of definitions of the concept CPR in the literature. The common pool/property resource concepts are both used, often depending on the resource studied, and authors in this volume have used both terms accordingly. Certain points are raised from empirical cases presented in this volume that are partly missing or not thoroughly stressed in other work in the area of CPR management and which crystallized much clearer when contrasting the situation for cases from different scales. Separate abstracts have been performed for five of the seven contributions

  4. Bio-patents. The enclosure of the living

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Ptqk

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Bio-patents contribute to the privatization of the living and their exclusion from the commons, and thus reproduce and update colonial mechanisms in the governance of natural resources. Two current alternatives to the biopatentes systems are analized: the logic of open and free access to resources and the concept of environment as common heritage of mankind.

  5. Voracious transformation of a common natural resource into productive capital

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Ploeg, F.

    2010-01-01

    I analyze a power struggle where competing factions have private financial assets and deplete a common stock of natural resources with no private property rights. I obtain a feedback Nash equilibrium to the dynamic common-pool problem and obtain political variants of the Hotelling depletion rule and

  6. Exercise and sleep predict personal resources in employees' daily lives.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nägel, Inga J; Sonnentag, Sabine

    2013-11-01

    The present study investigates the interaction of exercise and sleep on state-like personal resources in employees' daily lives. Further, the study examines the association between state-like personal resources and emotional exhaustion. We conducted a diary study over five consecutive working days (total of 443 days) with 144 employees who answered daily online surveys after work and before bedtime. Multilevel modeling showed that exercise after work was positively related to the next day's personal resources when sleep duration during the night time was longer compared to other nights. Furthermore, personal resources positively related to lower emotional exhaustion after work on the next day. This study demonstrates that exercise and sleep may help to renew personal resources. Results stress the importance of balancing exercise and sleep in daily life. © 2013 The International Association of Applied Psychology.

  7. What People Living with Aphasia Think about the Availability of Aphasia Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hinckley, Jacqueline J.; Hasselkus, Amy; Ganzfried, Ellayne

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Obtaining health information and resources can influence an individual's (a) access to services, (b) interactions with health care providers, and (c) ability to manage one's own health needs. The purpose of this study was to gather the perceptions of consumers living with aphasia about resource availability and information needs. Method:…

  8. Human adaptive behavior in common pool resource systems.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunnar Brandt

    Full Text Available Overexploitation of common-pool resources, resulting from uncooperative harvest behavior, is a major problem in many social-ecological systems. Feedbacks between user behavior and resource productivity induce non-linear dynamics in the harvest and the resource stock that complicate the understanding and the prediction of the co-evolutionary system. With an adaptive model constrained by data from a behavioral economic experiment, we show that users' expectations of future pay-offs vary as a result of the previous harvest experience, the time-horizon, and the ability to communicate. In our model, harvest behavior is a trait that adjusts to continuously changing potential returns according to a trade-off between the users' current harvest and the discounted future productivity of the resource. Given a maximum discount factor, which quantifies the users' perception of future pay-offs, the temporal dynamics of harvest behavior and ecological resource can be predicted. Our results reveal a non-linear relation between the previous harvest and current discount rates, which is most sensitive around a reference harvest level. While higher than expected returns resulting from cooperative harvesting in the past increase the importance of future resource productivity and foster sustainability, harvests below the reference level lead to a downward spiral of increasing overexploitation and disappointing returns.

  9. Management of Common Resources and Reciprocity: the contributions of Elinor Ostrom to the Debate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric Sabourin

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes the importance of reciprocity in the processes and procedures recorded in the management of common resources. It examines first the role that E. Ostrom attributes to the norm of reciprocity in her approach to common property resources. A second part interprets economic and social relations in the management of common resources as seen by economic anthropology’s theory of reciprocity. Finally, the conclusion attempts to establish a dialogue between Ostrom’s proposals and the theory of reciprocity.

  10. Internet-Based commons of intellectual resources : An exploration of their variety

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de laat, Paul B.; J. Berleur,; M.I. Nurminen,; J. Impaglizzo,

    2006-01-01

    During the two last decades, speeded up by the development of the Internet, several types of commons have been opened up for intellectual resources. In this article their variety is being explored as to the kind of resources and the type of regulation involved. The open source software movement

  11. Using the GlideinWMS System as a Common Resource Provisioning Layer in CMS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Balcas, J. [Vilnius U.; Belforte, S. [Trieste U.; Bockelman, B. [Nebraska U.; Colling, D. [Imperial Coll., London; Gutsche, O. [Fermilab; Hufnagel, D. [Fermilab; Khan, F. [Quaid-i-Azam U.; Larson, K. [Fermilab; Letts, J. [UC, San Diego; Mascheroni, M. [Milan Bicocca U.; Mason, D. [Fermilab; McCrea, A. [UC, San Diego; Piperov, S. [Brown U.; Saiz-Santos, M. [UC, San Diego; Sfiligoi, I. [UC, San Diego; Tanasijczuk, A. [UC, San Diego; Wissing, C. [DESY

    2015-12-23

    CMS will require access to more than 125k processor cores for the beginning of Run 2 in 2015 to carry out its ambitious physics program with more and higher complexity events. During Run1 these resources were predominantly provided by a mix of grid sites and local batch resources. During the long shut down cloud infrastructures, diverse opportunistic resources and HPC supercomputing centers were made available to CMS, which further complicated the operations of the submission infrastructure. In this presentation we will discuss the CMS effort to adopt and deploy the glideinWMS system as a common resource provisioning layer to grid, cloud, local batch, and opportunistic resources and sites. We will address the challenges associated with integrating the various types of resources, the efficiency gains and simplifications associated with using a common resource provisioning layer, and discuss the solutions found. We will finish with an outlook of future plans for how CMS is moving forward on resource provisioning for more heterogenous architectures and services.

  12. Games of corruption in preventing the overuse of common-pool resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Joung-Hun; Jusup, Marko; Iwasa, Yoh

    2017-09-07

    Maintaining human cooperation in the context of common-pool resource management is extremely important because otherwise we risk overuse and corruption. To analyse the interplay between economic and ecological factors leading to corruption, we couple the resource dynamics and the evolutionary dynamics of strategic decision making into a powerful analytical framework. The traits of this framework are: (i) an arbitrary number of harvesters share the responsibility to sustainably exploit a specific part of an ecosystem, (ii) harvesters face three strategic choices for exploiting the resource, (iii) a delegated enforcement system is available if called upon, (iv) enforcers are either honest or corrupt, and (v) the resource abundance reflects the choice of harvesting strategies. The resulting dynamical system is bistable; depending on the initial conditions, it evolves either to cooperative (sustainable exploitation) or defecting (overexploitation) equilibria. Using the domain of attraction to cooperative equilibria as an indicator of successful management, we find that the more resilient the resource (as implied by a high growth rate), the more likely the dominance of corruption which, in turn, suppresses the cooperative outcome. A qualitatively similar result arises when slow resource dynamics relative to the dynamics of decision making mask the benefit of cooperation. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of managing common-pool resources. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Estuarine Living Marine Resources: Southeast Regional Distribution and Abundance (NCEI Accession 0163992)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This is the original (1991) Southeast regional component of NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and...

  14. Valuing lives and allocating resources: a defense of the modified youngest first principle of scarce resource distribution.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tallman, Ruth

    2014-06-01

    In this paper, I argue that the 'modified youngest first' principle provides a morally appropriate criterion for making decisions regarding the distribution of scarce medical resources, and that it is morally preferable to the simple 'youngest first' principle. Based on the complete lives system's goal of maximizing complete lives rather than individual life episodes, I argue that essential to the value we see in complete lives is the first person value attributed by the experiencer of that life. For a life to be 'complete' or 'incomplete,' the subject of that life must be able to understand the concept of a complete life, to have started goals and projects, and to know what it would be for that life to be complete. As the very young are not able to do this, it can reasonably be said that their characteristically human lives have not yet begun, giving those accepting a complete lives approach good reason to accept the modified youngest first principle over a simple 'youngest first' approach. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  15. Sharing common pool resources at the border of protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ANA-IRINA DINCA

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The common pool resources are a very actual topic a pproached by both scientists and practitioners preoccupied nowadays of gradually incr easing environmental problems. Protected areas in Romania and especially in Romanian Carpath ians of national and natural park type (IUCN II and V represent areas of particular interes t in the light of the common pool resources theory imposing conservation laws on areas meeting a n increased pressure from human communities around them. The important socio-econom ic and ownership changes that Romania met in the last decades changed its previous state unique ownership into a multiple stakeholder ownership. At the same time vulnerable human communi ties located in fragile mountain areas and depending to a high extent on natural resources met an increased stress when exploiting natural resources at the border of protected areas. Consequently sharing the common pool of resources in the buffer zone of protected areas in the Romanian Carpathians represents a very actual and important topic to be treated in the pre sent study.

  16. Cooperative institutions for sustainable common pool resource management: Application to groundwater

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madani, Kaveh; Dinar, Ariel

    2012-09-01

    Beneficiaries of common pool resources (CPRs) may select available noncooperative and regulatory exogenous institutions for managing the resource, as well as cooperative management institutions. All these institutions may increase the long-term gains, prolong the life of the resource, and help to escape the tragedy of the commons trap. Cooperative game theory approaches can serve as the backbone of cooperative CPR management institutions. This paper formulates and applies several commonly used cooperative game theoretic solution concepts, namely, the core, Nash-Harsanyi, Shapley, and nucleolus. Through a numerical groundwater example, we show how CPR users can share the gains obtained from cooperation in a fair and efficient manner based on these cooperative solution concepts (management institutions). Although, based on their fairness rationales, various cooperative management institutions may suggest different allocations that are potentially acceptable to the users, these allocation solutions may not be stable as some users may find them unfair. This paper discusses how different methods, such as application of the plurality rule and power index, stability index, and propensity to disrupt concepts, can help identify the most stable and likely solutions for enforcing cooperation among the CPR beneficiaries. Furthermore, how the noncooperative managerial characteristics of the CPR users can affect the stability and acceptability of the different cooperative CPR management institutions is discussed, providing valuable policy insights for cooperative CPR management at community levels.

  17. Estuarine Living Marine Resources: Mid-Atlantic Regional Distribution and Abundance (NCEI Accession 0162403)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This is the Mid-Atlantic regional component of NOAA’s Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically...

  18. Estuarine Living Marine Resources: West Coast Regional Distribution and Abundance (NCEI Accession 0161540)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This is the West Coast regional component of NOAA’s Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically...

  19. Estuarine Living Marine Resources: North Atlantic Regional Distribution and Abundance (NCEI Accession 0162402)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This is the North Atlantic regional component of NOAA’s Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and economically...

  20. Factors driving deforestation in common-pool resources in northern Mexico.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perez-Verdin, Gustavo; Kim, Yeon-Su; Hospodarsky, Denver; Tecle, Aregai

    2009-01-01

    The theory of collective action has been extensively used to explain the relationship between common-based property regimes and the conservation of natural resources. However, there are two key components of the theory that literature reports as puzzles in which no consensus exists about their effect on the performance of common-pool resources. These are group size and heterogeneity. This study analyzes the effects of these two key components on the effectiveness of community-based forestry, called ejidos, to protect their forest resources in northern Mexico. We used a multinomial logit model to determine the contribution of 16 explanatory variables to the dependent variable, a measure of success of ejidos defined by the presence of deforested, degraded, or forested conditions. The results show that corn yield, marginality, percent of forest area, total population, a forest value index, distance to markets, roads and towns, were all statistically significant in driving deforested conditions. Deforestation becomes more attractive for poor communities and as corn yield and distance to towns, roads, and markets decrease. In general, group size and heterogeneity had no significant effects on the presence of deforested conditions. Deforestation is driven by resource-specific characteristics, such as location and soil productivity, not by ejidos' attributes, such as total area or number of members. We argue that current institutional policies focusing on the structure of property right arrangements should be shifted (1) to provide better technology for land cultivation; (2) to reduce the marginality problem in poor communities; and (3) to strengthen local institutions.

  1. Geographic information system in marine biology: Way for sustainable utilization of living resources

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Chavan, V.S.; Sreepada, R.A.

    Sustainable utilization of aquatic living resources needs accurate assessment. This stress the need for use of Geographic Information System (GIS). In the recent past interest has been generated for use of GIS in various areas of biological...

  2. Governing the management and use of pooled microbial genetic resources: Lessons from the global crop commons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Halewood

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper highlights lessons learned over the last thirty years establishing a governance structure for the global crop commons that are of relevance to current champions of the microbial commons. It argues that the political, legal and biophysical situation in which microbial genetic resources (and their users are located today are similar to the situation of plant genetic resources in the mid-1990s, before the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was negotiated. Consequently, the paper suggests that it may be useful to look to the model of global network of ex situ plant genetic resources collections as a precedent to follow – even if only loosely – in developing an intergovernmentally endorsed legal substructure and governance framework for the microbial commons.

  3. LAKE VICTORIA AND THE COMMON PROPERTY DEBATE: IS THE TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS A THREAT TO ITS FUTURE?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erick Ochieng OGELLO

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Lake Victoria is the largest among the African Great Lakes in East African region that are believed to have both dynamic and fragile aquatic ecosystems. Within two decades, the lake has experienced extensive resource exploitation leading to constrained productivity and drastic decline of native biodiversity. Intensive non-selective fishing, catchment vegetation degradation, industrial and agricultural pollution, the introduction of exotic species and uneven patchwork of governmental laws are some of the reasons for the current ecological woes facing Lake Victoria. This paper intends to stimulate recognition of Lake Victoria and its catchment as a lived Com­mons, to be shared, protected, managed and enjoyed by all who live around it. The paper compares the original biodiversity status of the lake with the current status and discusses the role of unlimited access as a function of the loss of the Lake’s biological wealth. The Lake’s water resource base, fishery, wetlands and other aquatic resources have been exhaustively discussed. In this review, we uphold the Hardin’s school of thought that freedom of the commoners causes resource overuse leading to poverty. Therefore, limiting freedom could be essential. However, there is need for provision of alternative means of survival since people with no choices would continue over-exploiting ecosystems even under limited access. The Lake Victoria basin commons should be protected by strict legal and clear political frame­work based on public trust doctrine, reinforced in law that the Lake is vital for the survival of people, plants and animals living on or near it and therefore must be protected for the common good. The political jurisdictions should consider governing the Lake basin as one integrated watershed. It is our fervent hope that bordering communities will secure grass root movements to protect and nurture Lake Victoria and its environs for the benefit of the present and future

  4. Estuarine Living Marine Resources: Gulf of Mexico Regional Distribution and Abundance (NCEI Accession 0163993)

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — This is the original (1992) Gulf of Mexico regional component of NOAA's Estuarine Living Marine Resources (ELMR) Project, a national database of ecologically and...

  5. Saving maternal lives in resource-poor settings: facing reality.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Prata, Ndola; Sreenivas, Amita; Vahidnia, Farnaz; Potts, Malcolm

    2009-02-01

    Evaluate safe-motherhood interventions suitable for resource-poor settings that can be implemented with current resources. Literature review to identify interventions that require minimal treatment/infrastructure and are not dependent on skilled providers. Simulations were run to assess the potential number of maternal lives that could be saved through intervention implementation according to potential program impact. Regional and country level estimates are provided as examples of settings that would most benefit from proposed interventions. Three interventions were identified: (i) improve access to contraception; (ii) increase efforts to reduce deaths from unsafe abortion; and (iii) increase access to misoprostol to control postpartum hemorrhage (including for home births). The combined effect of postpartum hemorrhage and unsafe abortion prevention would result in the greatest gains in maternal deaths averted. Bold new initiatives are needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by three-quarters. Ninety-nine percent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries and the majority of these women deliver alone, or with a traditional birth attendant. It is time for maternal health program planners to reprioritize interventions in the face of human and financial resource constraints. The three proposed interventions address the largest part of the maternal health burden.

  6. The dual impact of ecology and management on social incentives in marine common-pool resource systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, E S; Barbier, M R; Watson, J R

    2017-08-01

    Understanding how and when cooperative human behaviour forms in common-pool resource systems is critical to illuminating social-ecological systems and designing governance institutions that promote sustainable resource use. Before assessing the full complexity of social dynamics, it is essential to understand, concretely and mechanistically, how resource dynamics and human actions interact to create incentives and pay-offs for social behaviours. Here, we investigated how such incentives for information sharing are affected by spatial dynamics and management in a common-pool resource system. Using interviews with fishermen to inform an agent-based model, we reveal generic mechanisms through which, for a given ecological setting characterized by the spatial dynamics of the resource, the two 'human factors' of information sharing and management may heterogeneously impact various members of a group for whom theory would otherwise predict the same strategy. When users can deplete the resource, these interactions are further affected by the management approach. Finally, we discuss the implications of alternative motivations, such as equity among fishermen and consistency of the fleet's output. Our results indicate that resource spatial dynamics, form of management and level of depletion can interact to alter the sociality of people in common-pool resource systems, providing necessary insight for future study of strategic decision processes.

  7. The exploitation of living resources in the Dutch Wadden Sea : a historical overview

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wolff, W J

    An overview, based on written sources and personal observations, is presented of exploitation of living resources in and around the Dutch Wadden Sea during the past few centuries. It is concluded that before about 1900 exploitation was almost unrestricted. Exploitation of plants has been documented

  8. Cooperation Is Not Enough—Exploring Social-Ecological Micro-Foundations for Sustainable Common-Pool Resource Use

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wijermans, Nanda; Schlüter, Maja; Lindahl, Therese

    2016-01-01

    Cooperation amongst resource users holds the key to overcoming the social dilemma that characterizes community-based common-pool resource management. But is cooperation alone enough to achieve sustainable resource use? The short answer is no. Developing management strategies in a complex social-ecological environment also requires ecological knowledge and approaches to deal with perceived environmental uncertainty. Recent behavioral experimental research indicates variation in the degree to which a group of users can identify a sustainable exploitation level. In this paper, we identify social-ecological micro-foundations that facilitate cooperative sustainable common-pool resource use. We do so by using an agent-based model (ABM) that is informed by behavioral common-pool resource experiments. In these experiments, groups that cooperate do not necessarily manage the resource sustainably, but also over- or underexploit. By reproducing the patterns of the behavioral experiments in a qualitative way, the ABM represents a social-ecological explanation for the experimental observations. We find that the ecological knowledge of each group member cannot sufficiently explain the relationship between cooperation and sustainable resource use. Instead, the development of a sustainable exploitation level depends on the distribution of ecological knowledge among the group members, their influence on each other’s knowledge, and the environmental uncertainty the individuals perceive. The study provides insights about critical social-ecological micro-foundations underpinning collective action and sustainable resource management. These insights may inform policy-making, but also point to future research needs regarding the mechanisms of social learning, the development of shared management strategies and the interplay of social and ecological uncertainty. PMID:27556175

  9. Ecologically sustainable but unjust? Negotiating equity and authority in common-pool marine resource management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sarah C. Klain

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Under appropriate conditions, community-based fisheries management can support sound resource stewardship, with positive social and environmental outcomes. Evaluating indigenous peoples' involvement in commercial sea cucumber and geoduck fisheries on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada, we found that the current social-ecological system configuration is relatively ecologically sustainable according to stock assessments. However, the current system also results in perceived inequities in decision-making processes, harvesting allocations, and socioeconomic benefits. As a result, local coastal resource managers envision a transformation of sea cucumber and geoduck fisheries governance and management institutions. We assessed the potential robustness of the proposed institutions using Elinor Ostrom's common-pool resource design principles. Grounded in the region's legal, political, and historical context, our analysis suggests that greater local involvement in these invertebrate fisheries and their management could provide more benefits to local communities than the status quo while maintaining an ecologically sustainable resource. Our research highlights the importance of explicitly addressing historical context and equity considerations in social-ecological system analyses and when renegotiating the institutions governing common-pool resources.

  10. Live lectures or online videos: students' resource choices in a first-year university mathematics module

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Emma; Meehan, Maria; Parnell, Andrew

    2018-05-01

    In Maths for Business, a mathematics module for non-mathematics specialists, students are given the choice of completing the module content via short online videos, live lectures or a combination of both. In this study, we identify students' specific usage patterns with both of these resources and discuss their reasons for the preferences they exhibit. In 2015-2016, we collected quantitative data on each student's resource usage (attendance at live lectures and access of online videos) for the entire class of 522 students and employed model-based clustering which identified four distinct resource usage patterns with lectures and/or videos. We also collected qualitative data on students' perceptions of resource usage through a survey administered at the end of the semester, to which 161 students responded. The 161 survey responses were linked to each cluster and analysed using thematic analysis. Perceived benefits of videos include flexibility of scheduling and pace, and avoidance of large, long lectures. In contrast, the main perceived advantages of lectures are the ability to engage in group tasks, to ask questions, and to learn 'gradually'. Students in the two clusters with high lecture attendance achieved, on average, higher marks in the module.

  11. Can live tree size-density relationships provide a mechanism for predicting down and dead tree resources?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Christopher Woodall; James Westfall

    2009-01-01

    Live tree size-density relationships in forests have long provided a framework for understanding stand dynamics. There has been little examination of the relationship between the size-density attributes of live and standing/down dead trees (e.g., number and mean tree size per unit area, such information could help in large-scale efforts to estimate dead wood resources...

  12. Self-Governance and Sustainable Common Pool Resource Management in Kyrgyzstan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tanja Baerlein

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available How to best govern natural resources in order to enable a sustainable way of handling them is what both research and practice aim to achieve. Empirical findings from several studies indicate that resource users are able to successfully cooperate in the management of common pool resources and solve social dilemmas through self-governance arrangements. The authors explore the potential success of self-governance in irrigation systems, focusing primarily on the factors influencing compliance of irrigation water users under self-crafted and self-enforced rules in two Kyrgyz communities. A field experiment is employed to provide insights and some quantitative empirical data, further complemented by qualitative methods (questionnaires, group discussions and interviews to enhance the analysis of the findings about working rules in irrigation at the community level. The results show that Kyrgyz irrigation users of the selected communities generally respond better in a self-governance setting in terms of rules compliance, distribution efficiency and equity. Compliance and cooperative behavior depend on group as well as individual variables including communication, social norms and the legitimacy of rules.

  13. Cooperation Is Not Enough—Exploring Social-Ecological Micro-Foundations for Sustainable Common-Pool Resource Use [corrected].

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Caroline Schill

    Full Text Available Cooperation amongst resource users holds the key to overcoming the social dilemma that characterizes community-based common-pool resource management. But is cooperation alone enough to achieve sustainable resource use? The short answer is no. Developing management strategies in a complex social-ecological environment also requires ecological knowledge and approaches to deal with perceived environmental uncertainty. Recent behavioral experimental research indicates variation in the degree to which a group of users can identify a sustainable exploitation level. In this paper, we identify social-ecological micro-foundations that facilitate cooperative sustainable common-pool resource use. We do so by using an agent-based model (ABM that is informed by behavioral common-pool resource experiments. In these experiments, groups that cooperate do not necessarily manage the resource sustainably, but also over- or underexploit. By reproducing the patterns of the behavioral experiments in a qualitative way, the ABM represents a social-ecological explanation for the experimental observations. We find that the ecological knowledge of each group member cannot sufficiently explain the relationship between cooperation and sustainable resource use. Instead, the development of a sustainable exploitation level depends on the distribution of ecological knowledge among the group members, their influence on each other's knowledge, and the environmental uncertainty the individuals perceive. The study provides insights about critical social-ecological micro-foundations underpinning collective action and sustainable resource management. These insights may inform policy-making, but also point to future research needs regarding the mechanisms of social learning, the development of shared management strategies and the interplay of social and ecological uncertainty.

  14. Cooperation Is Not Enough—Exploring Social-Ecological Micro-Foundations for Sustainable Common-Pool Resource Use [corrected].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schill, Caroline; Wijermans, Nanda; Schlüter, Maja; Lindahl, Therese

    2016-01-01

    Cooperation amongst resource users holds the key to overcoming the social dilemma that characterizes community-based common-pool resource management. But is cooperation alone enough to achieve sustainable resource use? The short answer is no. Developing management strategies in a complex social-ecological environment also requires ecological knowledge and approaches to deal with perceived environmental uncertainty. Recent behavioral experimental research indicates variation in the degree to which a group of users can identify a sustainable exploitation level. In this paper, we identify social-ecological micro-foundations that facilitate cooperative sustainable common-pool resource use. We do so by using an agent-based model (ABM) that is informed by behavioral common-pool resource experiments. In these experiments, groups that cooperate do not necessarily manage the resource sustainably, but also over- or underexploit. By reproducing the patterns of the behavioral experiments in a qualitative way, the ABM represents a social-ecological explanation for the experimental observations. We find that the ecological knowledge of each group member cannot sufficiently explain the relationship between cooperation and sustainable resource use. Instead, the development of a sustainable exploitation level depends on the distribution of ecological knowledge among the group members, their influence on each other's knowledge, and the environmental uncertainty the individuals perceive. The study provides insights about critical social-ecological micro-foundations underpinning collective action and sustainable resource management. These insights may inform policy-making, but also point to future research needs regarding the mechanisms of social learning, the development of shared management strategies and the interplay of social and ecological uncertainty.

  15. Environmental Resource Management in Borderlands: Evolution from Competing Interests to Common Aversions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick Henry Buckley

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Great enthusiasm is attached to the emergence of cross-border regions (CBRs as a new institutional arrangement for dealing with local cross-border environmental resource management and other issues that remain too distant from national capitals and/or too expensive to be addressed in the traditional topocratic manner requiring instead local adhocratic methods. This study briefly discusses the perceived value of CBRs and necessary and sufficient conditions for the successful and sustainable development of such places. Then, assuming that necessary conditions can be met, the study investigates an intriguing hypothesis concerning the catalyzing of sustainable consensus for cross-border resource management based on a game theoretical approach that employs the use of dilemma of common aversion rather than the more traditional dilemma of competing common interests. Using this lens to investigate a series of events on the Pacific northwestern Canadian-American border in a part of the Fraser Lowland, we look for evidence of the emergence of an active and sustainable CBR to address local trans-border resource management issues. Although our micro-level scale fails to conclusively demonstrate such evidence, it does demonstrate the value of using this approach and suggests a number of avenues for further research.

  16. Population trends and live birth rates associated with common ART treatment strategies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chambers, Georgina M; Wand, Handan; Macaldowie, Alan; Chapman, Michael G; Farquhar, Cynthia M; Bowman, Mark; Molloy, David; Ledger, William

    2016-11-01

    Have ART live birth rates improved in Australia over the last 12 years? There were striking improvements in per-cycle live birth rates observed for frozen/thaw embryo transfers, blastocyst transfer and single embryo transfer (SET), while live birth rates following ICSI were lower than IVF for non-male factor infertility in most years. ART and associated techniques have become the predominant treatment of infertility over the past 30 years in most developed countries. However, there are differences in ART laboratory and clinical practices, and success rates worldwide. Australia has one of the highest ART utilization rates and lowest multiple birth rates in the world, thus providing a unique setting to investigate the contribution of common ART strategies in an unrestricted population of patients to ART success rates. A retrospective cohort study of 585 065 ART treatment cycles performed in Australia between 2002 and 2013 using the Australian and New Zealand Assisted Reproduction Database (ANZARD). An unrestricted population of all women who underwent autologous ART treatment between 2002 and 2013. Visual descriptive analysis was used to assess the trends in ART procedures by the calendar years. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of a live birth for four common ART techniques were calculated after controlling for important confounders including female age, infertility diagnosis, stage of the embryo (blastocyst versus cleavage stage), type of embryo (fresh versus thawed), fertilization method (IVF versus ICSI) and number of embryos transferred (SET versus multiple embryos). The overall live birth rate per embryo transfer increased from 19.2% in 2002 to 23.3% in 2013 (21.9-24.3% for fresh embryo transfers and 14.6-23.3% for frozen/thaw embryo transfers). This occurred concurrently with an increase in SET from 29.7% to 78.9%, and an increase in the average age of women undergoing treatment from 35.0 to 35.9 years. Individuals who had a frozen/thaw embryo transfer cycle in 2002

  17. Exploring the Potential of a German Living Lab Research Infrastructure for the Development of Low Resource Products and Services

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Justus von Geibler

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Living Labs for Sustainable Development aim to integrate users and actors for the successful generation of low-resource innovations in production-consumption systems. This paper investigates potentials of and measures towards the realization of a German Living Lab infrastructure to support actor-integrated sustainability research and innovations in Germany. Information was primarily derived from extensive dialog with experts from the fields of innovation, sustainable development and the Living Lab community (operators, users, etc., which was facilitated through interviews and workshops. A status quo analysis revealed that, generally, the sustainability and Living Lab communities are hardly intertwined. Twelve Living Labs that explicitly consider sustainability aspects were identified. The application fields “Living and Working”, “Town, Region and Mobility”, and “Retail and Gastronomy” were identified as particularly suitable for investigation in Living Labs and highly relevant in terms of resource efficiency. Based on the analyses of drivers and barriers and SWOT, keystones for the development of a research infrastructure for user integrated development of sustainable products and services were formulated. Suggested strategies and measures include targeted funding programs for actor-integrated, socio-technical research based on a Living Lab network, a communication campaign, and programs to foster networking and the inclusion of SMEs.

  18. Coastal resource degradation in the tropics: does the tragedy of the commons apply for coral reefs, mangrove forests and seagrass beds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilkinson, Clive; Salvat, Bernard

    2012-06-01

    The keynote paper by Garrett Hardin 44 years ago introduced the term 'tragedy of the commons' into our language (Hardin, 1968); this term is now used widely, but it is neither universally accepted nor fully understood. Irrespective, the 'tragedy of the commons' is an increasing reality for more than 500 million people that rely on the biodiversity resources and services of tropical coral reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds and associated fisheries. These natural resources continue to decline despite major advances in our scientific understanding of how ecosystems and human populations interact, and the application of considerable conservation and management efforts at scales from local user communities to oceans. Greater effort will be required to avert increasing damage from over-exploitation, pollution and global climate change; all deriving from increasing exploitation driven by poverty and progress i.e. continuing to expand development indefinitely and extraction of resources at industrial scales. However, the 'tragedy' concept has been widely criticized as a simple metaphor for a much larger set of problems and solutions. We argue that the 'tragedy' is essentially real and will continue to threaten the lives of millions of people unless there are some major moral and policy shifts to reverse increasing damage to coastal habitats and resources. We agree with the conclusion by Hardin that the solution to the tragedy will not be through the application of natural sciences, but via implementing exceedingly difficult and controversial moral decisions. An extreme example of a moral and controversial direction suggested by Hardin was in re-examining the 'freedom to breed' as an inherent human value. The need for 'moral decisions' is even greater in 2012. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Common accounting system for monitoring the ATLAS distributed computing resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Karavakis, E; Andreeva, J; Campana, S; Saiz, P; Gayazov, S; Jezequel, S; Sargsyan, L; Schovancova, J; Ueda, I

    2014-01-01

    This paper covers in detail a variety of accounting tools used to monitor the utilisation of the available computational and storage resources within the ATLAS Distributed Computing during the first three years of Large Hadron Collider data taking. The Experiment Dashboard provides a set of common accounting tools that combine monitoring information originating from many different information sources; either generic or ATLAS specific. This set of tools provides quality and scalable solutions that are flexible enough to support the constantly evolving requirements of the ATLAS user community.

  20. Using game theory approach to interpret stable policies for Iran's oil and gas common resources conflicts with Iraq and Qatar

    Science.gov (United States)

    Esmaeili, Maryam; Bahrini, Aram; Shayanrad, Sepideh

    2015-12-01

    Oil and gas as the non-renewable resources are considered very valuable for the countries with petroleum economics. These resources are not only diffused equally around the world, but also they are common in some places which their neighbors often come into conflicts. Consequently, it is vital for those countries to manage their resource utilization. Lately, game theory was applied in conflict resolution of common resources, such as water, which is a proof of its efficacy and capability. This paper models the conflicts between Iran and its neighbors namely Qatar and Iraq between their oil and gas common resources using game theory approach. In other words, the future of these countries will be introduced and analyzed by some well-known 2 × 2 games to achieve a better perspective of their conflicts. Because of information inadequacy of the players, in addition to Nash Stability, various solution concepts are used based on the foresight, disimprovements, and knowledge of preferences. The results of mathematical models show how the countries could take a reasonable strategy to exploit their common resources.

  1. Integrated Common Radio Resource Management with Spectrum Aggregation over Non-Contiguous Frequency Bands

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Cabral, Orlando; Meucci, Filippo; Mihovska, Albena D.

    2011-01-01

    This paper proposes an integrated Common Radio Resource Management (iCRRM). The iCRRM performs classic CRRM functionalities jointly with Spectrum Aggregation (SA), being able to switch users between non-contiguous frequency bands. The SA scheduling is obtained with an optimised General Multi...

  2. Logical and physical resource management in the common node of a distributed function laboratory computer network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stubblefield, F.W.

    1976-01-01

    A scheme for managing resources required for transaction processing in the common node of a distributed function computer system has been given. The scheme has been found to be satisfactory for all common node services provided so far

  3. Rebuilding common property management : a case study of community-based natural resource management in rural Guizhou, China

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Sun, Qiu

    2007-01-01

    Environmental degradation and rural poverty are inter-related problems of great concern to developing countries. The poor mostly live in environmentally fragile regions and rely heavily on natural resources for their livelihood subsistence. Unfortunately, environmental degradation and rural poverty

  4. OGUMI-A new mobile application to conduct common-pool resource experiments in continuous time.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gunnar Brandt

    Full Text Available OGUMI is an Android-based open source mobile application for conducting Common-Pool Resource Experiments, Choice Experiments, and Questionnaires in the field, in the laboratory, and online. A main feature of OGUMI is its capacity to capture real-time changes in human behaviour in response to a dynamically varying resource. OGUMI is simple (for example, likewise other existing software, it does not require expertise in behavioural game theory, stable, and extremely flexible with respect to the user-resource model running in the background. Here we present the motivation for the development of OGUMI and we discuss its main features with an example application.

  5. Sharing a common resource with concave benefits

    OpenAIRE

    Ambec, S.

    2006-01-01

    A group of agents enjoy concave and single-peak benefit functions from consuming a shared resource. They also value money (transfers). The resource is scarce in the sense that not everybody can consume its peak. The paper characterizes the unique (resource and money) allocation that is efficient, incentive compatible and equal-sharing individual rational. It can be implemented (i) by selling the resource or taxing extraction and redistributing the money collected equally, or (ii) by assigning...

  6. ORGANIZATION OF BIODIVERSITY RESOURCES BASED ON THE PROCESS OF THEIR CREATION AND THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL ORGANISMS AS RESOURCE RELATIONSHIP NODES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Steven J Baskauf

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract. - Kinds of occurrences (evidence of particular living organisms can be grouped by common data and metadata characteristics that are determined by the way that the occurrence represents the organism. The creation of occurrence resources follows a pattern which can be used as the basis for organizing both the metadata associated with those resources and the relationships among the resources. The central feature of this organizational system is a resource representing the individual organism. This resource serves as a node which connects the organism's occurrences and any determinations of the organism's taxonomic identity. I specify a relatively small number of predicates which can define the important relationships among these resources and suggest which metadata properties should logically be associated with each kind of resource.

  7. Managing physical therapy resources: an analogy to the freedom of the commons and the need for collective action.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brennan, Gerard P

    2012-06-01

    Tragedy results when we each pursue our own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of a commons, such as clean air, fresh water, or natural fishing grounds. The purpose of this editorial is to consider how resources related to healthcare, and specifically to the delivery of physical therapy, can suffer the tragedy of the commons, and to consider an alternative strategy by which we can manage physical therapy resources effectively through collective action.

  8. Sustainability is possible despite greed - Exploring the nexus between profitability and sustainability in common pool resource systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osten, Friedrich Burkhard von der; Kirley, Michael; Miller, Tim

    2017-05-23

    The sustainable use of common pool resources has become a significant global challenge. It is now widely accepted that specific mechanisms such as community-based management strategies, institutional responses such as resource privatization, information availability and emergent social norms can be used to constrain individual 'harvesting' to socially optimal levels. However, there is a paucity of research focused specifically on aligning profitability and sustainability goals. In this paper, an integrated mathematical model of a common pool resource game is developed to explore the nexus between the underlying costs and benefits of harvesting decisions and the sustainable level of a shared, dynamic resource. We derive optimal harvesting efforts analytically and then use numerical simulations to show that individuals in a group can learn to make harvesting decisions that lead to the globally optimal levels. Individual agents make their decision based on signals received and a trade-off between economic and ecological sustainability. When the balance is weighted towards profitability, acceptable economic and social outcomes emerge. However, if individual agents are solely driven by profit, the shared resource is depleted in the long run - sustainability is possible despite some greed, but too much will lead to over-exploitation.

  9. Framing water and forests as global or local? Transnational community-based networks transforming common-pool resources essence and scales

    OpenAIRE

    Dupuits, Emilie; Pflieger, Géraldine

    2017-01-01

    The current era of globalization and commodification has had a substantial impact on common-pool resources governance. In direct response to this, community-based organizations managing water and forests at the local level began to create their own transnational networks. Primarily, these organizations aim to achieve direct representation in international decision-making arenas in order to promote their model of collective governance. By reframing the representations of common-pool resources ...

  10. Common challenge in resource efficiency improvement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    La Motta, Sergio; Peronaci, Marcello

    2015-01-01

    Energy efficiency and technology improvements on their own will not achieve the Low Carbon Societies (LCS) goals. Thus, resource efficiency and a circular economy are keys to a low carbon society. Resource efficiency improvement potential has been analysed from the industrial and territorial management perspectives. Exploring synergies between LCS and the larger area of sustainable development and green economy, highlighting co-benefits and trade-offs, is of utmost importance to pave the way to a more equitable and largely participated low carbon transition.

  11. Live Lectures or Online Videos: Students' Resource Choices in a First-Year University Mathematics Module

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howard, Emma; Meehan, Maria; Parnell, Andrew

    2018-01-01

    In "Maths for Business", a mathematics module for non-mathematics specialists, students are given the choice of completing the module content via short online videos, live lectures or a combination of both. In this study, we identify students' specific usage patterns with both of these resources and discuss their reasons for the…

  12. Appropriation of common access natural resources through exploration: A differential game of a claiming rush

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mohr, E

    1985-10-01

    This paper provides a model of natural resource exploration, where the sole motivation to explore arises from a strategic incentive to preempt competitors. It is assumed that private ownership rights over a finite unexplored and commonly held resource stock can be established through a costly deterministic exploration process. The open-loop and the feedback Nash equilibrium is analysed. It is shown that in between intervals of soaring exploratory activities there may be an interval where exploration is declining over time.

  13. Internet in the lives of children and adolescents: problems and resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sorokina A.B.

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The article describes a problem of training and personality development of adolescents as regular Internet-users and, namely , social networkers. It discusses two commonly studied questions, concerning the use of data resources: children and young people in social networks and online technologies in teaching. The main aspects discussed in the article are: the issues related to modalities of development of communication skills, security, risk of adolescents’ Internet addiction and the role of social networking in training.

  14. Narratives reflecting the lived experiences of people with brain disorders: common psychosocial difficulties and determinants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartley, Sally; McArthur, Maggie; Coenen, Michaela; Cabello, Maria; Covelli, Venusia; Roszczynska-Michta, Joanna; Pitkänen, Tuuli; Bickenbach, Jerome; Cieza, Alarcos

    2014-01-01

    People with brain disorders - defined as both, mental disorders and neurological disorders experience a wide range of psychosocial difficulties (PSDs) (e.g., concentrating, maintaining energy levels, and maintaining relationships). Research evidence is required to show that these PSDs are common across brain disorders. To explore and gain deeper understanding of the experiences of people with seven brain disorders (alcohol dependency, depression, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, stroke). It examines the common PSDs and their influencing factors. Seventy seven qualitative studies identified in a systematic literature review and qualitative data derived from six focus groups are used to generate first-person narratives representing seven brain disorders. A theory-driven thematic analysis of these narratives identifies the PSDs and their influencing factors for comparison between the seven disorders. First-person narratives illustrate realities for people with brain disorders facilitating a deeper understanding of their every-day life experiences. Thematic analysis serves to highlight the commonalities, both of PSDs, such as loneliness, anger, uncertainty about the future and problems with work activities, and their determinants, such as work opportunities, trusting relationships and access to self-help groups. The strength of the methodology and the narratives is that they provide the opportunity for the reader to empathise with people with brain disorders and facilitate deeper levels of understanding of the complexity of the relationship of PSDs, determinants and facilitators. The latter reflect positive aspects of the lives of people with brain disorders. The result that many PSDs and their influencing factors are common to people with different brain disorders opens up the door to the possibility of using cross-cutting interventions involving different sectors. This strengthens the message that 'a great deal can be done' to improve

  15. Narratives reflecting the lived experiences of people with brain disorders: common psychosocial difficulties and determinants.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sally Hartley

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: People with brain disorders - defined as both, mental disorders and neurological disorders experience a wide range of psychosocial difficulties (PSDs (e.g., concentrating, maintaining energy levels, and maintaining relationships. Research evidence is required to show that these PSDs are common across brain disorders. OBJECTIVES: To explore and gain deeper understanding of the experiences of people with seven brain disorders (alcohol dependency, depression, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, stroke. It examines the common PSDs and their influencing factors. METHODS: Seventy seven qualitative studies identified in a systematic literature review and qualitative data derived from six focus groups are used to generate first-person narratives representing seven brain disorders. A theory-driven thematic analysis of these narratives identifies the PSDs and their influencing factors for comparison between the seven disorders. RESULTS: First-person narratives illustrate realities for people with brain disorders facilitating a deeper understanding of their every-day life experiences. Thematic analysis serves to highlight the commonalities, both of PSDs, such as loneliness, anger, uncertainty about the future and problems with work activities, and their determinants, such as work opportunities, trusting relationships and access to self-help groups. CONCLUSIONS: The strength of the methodology and the narratives is that they provide the opportunity for the reader to empathise with people with brain disorders and facilitate deeper levels of understanding of the complexity of the relationship of PSDs, determinants and facilitators. The latter reflect positive aspects of the lives of people with brain disorders. The result that many PSDs and their influencing factors are common to people with different brain disorders opens up the door to the possibility of using cross-cutting interventions involving different sectors

  16. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and Diabetes 6 Heart disease is the number one killer of people with diabetes. People living with ... glucose Take my medicine I Am A Select one: Person with diabetes Person with prediabetes Person at risk for diabetes ...

  17. The Influence of Ethnic Diversity on Social Network Structure in a Common-Pool Resource System: Implications for Collaborative Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Barnes-Mauthe

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Social networks have recently been identified as key features in facilitating or constraining collaborative arrangements that can enhance resource governance and adaptability in complex social-ecological systems. Nonetheless, the effect of ethnicity on social network structure in an ethnically diverse common-pool resource system is virtually unknown. We characterize the entire social network of Hawaii's longline fishery, an ethnically diverse competitive pelagic fishery, and investigate network homophily, network structure, and cross-scale linkages. Results show that ethnicity significantly influences social network structure and is responsible for a homophily effect, which can create challenges for stakeholder collaboration across groups. Our analysis also suggests that ethnicity influences the formation of diverse network structures, and can affect the level of linkages to outside industry leaders, government or management officials, and members of the scientific community. This study provides the first empirical examination of the impact of ethnic diversity on resource user's social networks in the common-pool resource literature, having important implications for collaborative resource management.

  18. Engendering independence while living with purpose: women's lives after leaving abusive intimate partners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McDonald, Penelope W; Dickerson, Suzanne

    2013-12-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine the common meanings a history of violence has for women out of abusive and violent relationships with an intimate male partner for 5 or more years. To describe the common meanings and shared practices of women who left violent and abusive heterosexual intimate relationships 5 or more years ago, the challenges they face in their current lives, and the resources they use to meet those challenges. An additional aim is to elucidate practical advice they have for others who want to be supportive of the efforts of women recovering from intimate partner violence. An interpretive phenomenological approach using Heideggerian hermeneutics was utilized. Approval of the University Social Sciences Institutional Review Board was obtained. Participants were recruited by means of fliers distributed through a domestic violence listserv and through postings in health clinics in western New York. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. A hermeneutic team approach was used for analysis and interpretation of texts. Twenty-one women of various ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, who self-identified as being out of abusive relationships for 5 or more years, were interviewed. Six themes were identified: developing and maintaining self reliance; negotiating relationships; creating a safe and supportive environment; challenging societal roles and expectations; nurturing the self; and protecting the children. Engendering independence while living with purpose was the constitutive pattern that unified the themes. Women can successfully establish productive, meaningful lives after violence and will fiercely protect and maintain their independence as they negotiate relationships and developmental challenges throughout their lives. A need for control of their lives and difficulty trusting others remain a lasting legacy of living with a history of violence. This is the first study that examines women's lives 5 or more years after leaving violent and

  19. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... and treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and Diabetes 6 Heart disease is the number one killer of people with diabetes. People living with diabetes offer tips on how to manage your diabetes and keep your heart healthy. Coping with Diabetes 8 Managing diabetes can ...

  20. Reclaiming deserted corridors: Rights of way as common property resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brown, D.T.

    1993-01-01

    In Canada, power line transmission corridors are administered and maintained by provincial crown utilities. These corridors have fragmented natural habitats, destroyed biota, and disrupted geological and hydrologic systems. The practices used by utilities to maintain their rights-of-way tend to worsen the environmental and social context of the localities affected by the corridors. If the corridors are considered as common resources, and if co-management of these resources is undertaken involving the utilities and the communities affected by the corridors, public rights-of-way would be created which would have environmental benefits. These corridors would have a recreational potential and could be managed so as to reduce considerably the negative impacts presently generated by current right-of-way management practices. The use of local residents in this management process could ensure that the use of the corridors harmonizes with local needs. Among the obstacles to the co-management of these corridors are the badly defined policies of secondary land use, the restrictions on vegetation maintenance in utility corridors, lengthy approvals processes, and concerns about public liability. To make co-management of these corridors a reality, new policy structures and new procedures have to be developed in cooperation with the utilities and the affected communities. 14 refs., 1 fig

  1. "That Is So Common Everyday . . . Everywhere You Go": Sexual Harassment of Workers in Assisted Living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burgess, Elisabeth O; Barmon, Christina; Moorhead, James R; Perkins, Molly M; Bender, Alexis A

    2018-04-01

    In assisted living (AL) facilities, workers are intimately involved in the lives of residents. Existing research on AL demonstrates the imbalance of this environment, which is a personal home for the residents and a workplace for staff. Using observational and interview data collected from six AL facilities, this grounded theory project analyzes how AL staff define, understand, and negotiate sexual comments, joking, and physical touch. We developed a conceptual model to describe how such harassment was perceived, experienced by AL workers, and how they responded. Sexualized behavior or harassment was experienced by workers of every status. We found that words and actions were contextualized based on resident and worker characteristics and the behavior. Staff members refused to engage residents, redirected them, or reframed the words and gestures to get the job done. Reporting the incidents was less common. We conclude by discussing implications for policy and research.

  2. Canada's crude oil resources : crude oil in our daily lives

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bott, R.

    2001-10-01

    Created in 1975, the Petroleum Communication Foundation is a not-for-profit organization. The objective of the Foundation is to inform Canadians about the petroleum industry in Canada. It produces educational, fact-based publications and programs, employing a multi-stakeholder review process. The first section of this publication is devoted to crude oil and the benefits that are derived from it. It begins by providing a brief definition of crude oil, then moves to the many uses in our daily lives and the environmental impacts like air pollution, spills, and footprint on the land from exploration and production activities. Section 2 details the many uses of crude oil and identifies the major oil producing regions of Canada. A quick mention is made of non-conventional sources of crude oil. The search for crude oil is the topic of section 3 of the document, providing an overview of the exploration activities, the access rights that must be obtained before gaining access to the resource. The drilling of oil is discussed in section 4. Section 5 deals with issues pertaining to reservoirs within rocks, while section 6 covers the feeding of the refineries, discussing topics from the movement of oil to market to the refining of the crude oil, and the pricing issues. In section 7, the uncertain future is examined with a view of balancing the supply and demand, as crude oil is a non-renewable resource. Supplementary information is provided concerning additional publications published by various organizations and agencies. figs

  3. How urban societies can adapt to resource shortage and climate change

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Satterthwaite, David

    2011-04-15

    With more than half the world's population now living in urban areas and with much of the world still urbanizing, there are concerns that urbanization is a key driver of unsustainable resource demands. Urbanization also appears to contribute to ever-growing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Meanwhile, in much of Africa and Asia and many nations in Latin America and the Caribbean, urbanization has long outstripped local governments' capacities or willingness to act as can be seen in the high proportion of the urban population living in poor quality, overcrowded, illegal housing lacking provision for water, sanitation, drainage, healthcare and schools. But there is good evidence that urban areas can combine high living standards with relatively low GHG emissions and lower resource demands. This paper draws on some examples of this and considers what these imply for urban policies in a resource-constrained world. These suggest that cities can allow high living standards to be combined with levels of GHG emissions that are much lower than those that are common in affluent cities today. This can be achieved not with an over-extended optimism on what new technologies can bring but mostly by a wider application of what already has been shown to work.

  4. Living with geo-resources and geo-hazards

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hangx, Suzanne|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/30483579X; Niemeijer, André|info:eu-repo/dai/nl/370832132

    2015-01-01

    Two of the key strategic topics on the European Committee’s Horizon2020 Roadmap revolve around geo-resources and geo-hazards, and their impact on societal and economic development. On the way towards a better policy for sustainable geo-resources production, such as oil, gas, geothermal energy and

  5. Common Extra House Lab: Recipes for Citizenship in Transition or the Domestic-collective Usage of the Common Good

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José Carrasco

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available This article describes actions that have led to progress in ways of living in citizen networks. The training framework is the last architecture course called Common Extra House Lab, in which it was encouraged to consider that there is no distinction between classroom, laboratory, and city. The domestic and its immediate public space (the extra-house are the starting point for new socio-technical experiments which could be considered experimental comparing them with academic standards, producing hybrid forums managed by people, technologies and resources. They ended up becoming recipes for citizens in transition and turned into the legacy for the next course.

  6. Managing living marine resources in a dynamic environment: the role of seasonal to decadal climate forecasts

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tommasi, Desiree; Stock, Charles A.; Hobday, Alistair J.

    2017-01-01

    and industry operations, as well as new research avenues in fisheries science. LMRs respond to climate variability via changes in physiology and behavior. For species and systems where climate-fisheries links are well established, forecasted LMR responses can lead to anticipatory and more effective decisions......Recent developments in global dynamical climate prediction systems have allowed for skillful predictions of climate variables relevant to living marine resources (LMRs) at a scale useful to understanding and managing LMRs. Such predictions present opportunities for improved LMR management......, benefitting both managers and stakeholders. Here, we provide an overview of climate prediction systems and advances in seasonal to decadal prediction of marine-resource relevant environmental variables. We then describe a range of climate-sensitive LMR decisions that can be taken at lead-times of months...

  7. Property regime concerning genetic resources and traditional knowledge

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriel R. Nemogá Soto

    2001-01-01

    Full Text Available This article provides an historical account of the changes that have taken place regarding ownership, control and access over genetic resources. Once considered the common heritage of humanity, rights over genetic resources, it is argued, have undergone radical transformations. The global legal framework regarding genetic resources has shifted to legitimize and promote their appropriation and monopolization. This transformation embraced the expansion of intellectual property rights over genetic material and information, including living organisms, through the World Trade Organization´s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPs. This was coupled by the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, which recognizes sovereign rights of the countries of origin over their genetic resources and, at the same time, obligates them to permit access to those resources. The Colombian Constitution of 1991 and unparalleled judicial decisions during the last decade reaffirmed sovereign rights over genetic resources in Colombia. Conversely, the genetic resources and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples and local communities continue to be freely accessible resources within the current Colombian legal framework.

  8. An analysis and comparison of commonly available United Kingdom prescribing resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, A R; Butt, T F; Ferner, R E

    2010-08-01

    Safe prescribing requires accurate and practical information about drugs. Our objective was to measure the utility of current sources of prescribing guidance when used to inform practical prescribing decisions, and to compare current sources of prescribing guidance in the UK with idealized prescribing guidance. We developed 25 clinical scenarios. Two independent assessors rated and ranked the performance of five common sources of prescribing guidance in the UK when used to answer the clinical scenarios. A third adjudicator facilitated review of any disparities. An idealized list of contents for prescribing guidance was developed and sent for comments to academics and users of prescribing guidance. Following consultation an operational check was used to assess compliance with the idealized criteria. The main outcome measures were relative utility in answering the clinical scenarios and compliance with the idealized prescribing guidance. Current sources of prescribing guidance used in the UK differ in their utility, when measured using clinical scenarios. The British National Formulary (BNF) and EMIS LV were the best performing sources in terms of both ranking [mean rank 1·24 and 2·20] and rating [%excellent or adequate 100% and 72%]. Current sources differed in the extent to which they fulfilled criteria for ideal prescribing guidance, but the BNF, and EMIS LV to a lesser extent, closely matched the criteria. We have demonstrated how clinical scenarios can be used to assess prescribing guidance resources. Producers of prescribing guidance documents should consider our idealized template. Prescribers require high-quality information to support their practice. Our test was helpful in distinguishing between prescribing resources. Producers of prescribing guidance should consider the utility of their products to end-users, particularly in those more complex areas where prescribers may need most support. Existing UK prescribing guidance resources differ in their

  9. Real goods solar living sourcebook your complete guide to living beyond the grid with renewable energy technologies and sustainable living

    CERN Document Server

    Schaeffer, John

    2014-01-01

    What book would you want if you were stranded on a desert island? Widely regarded as the ""bible"" of off-grid living, Real Goods Solar Living Source Book might be your best choice. With over six hundred thousand copies in print worldwide, it is the most comprehensive resource available for anyone interested in lessening their environmental footprint or increasing their energy independence. The Solar Living Sourcebook, Fourteenth Edition is the ultimate guide to renewable energy, sustainable living, natural and green building, off-grid living, and alternative transporta

  10. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... about their diagnoses and support networks. Diabetes and Kidney Disease 12 Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease. People living with diabetes offer tips on managing ...

  11. Knowledge and Natural Resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bertelsen, Rasmus Gjedssø; Justinussen, Jens Christian Svabo

    2016-01-01

    Arctic economies are generally natural resource based economies, whether they are indigenous economies largely dependent on living on the land or industrialized economies depending on marine resources, mineral resources or fossil or renewable energy resources. However, the central role of knowledge...

  12. Civil society participation in the management of the common good: a case of ethics in biological resource centres

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrici Calvo Cabezas

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available The management of commons is now at the centre of researchers’ attention in many branches of science, particularly those related to the human or social sciences. This paper seeks to demonstrate how civil society participation in common goods or resources is not only possible but is also desirable for society because of the medium and long-term benefits it offers involved and/or affected parties. To this end, we examine the falsity of the discourse underlying the supposed incompetence of civil society to cooperate interpersonally in the pursuit of common objectives, and also analyse a specific example of the necessary and possible participation of civil society in managing common goods through biobanks.

  13. What is so important about completing lives? A critique of the modified youngest first principle of scarce resource allocation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gamlund, Espen

    2016-04-01

    Ruth Tallman has recently offered a defense of the modified youngest first principle of scarce resource allocation [1]. According to Tallman, this principle calls for prioritizing adolescents and young adults between 15-40 years of age. In this article, I argue that Tallman's defense of the modified youngest first principle is vulnerable to important objections, and that it is thus unsuitable as a basis for allocating resources. Moreover, Tallman makes claims about the badness of death for individuals at different ages, but she lacks an account of the loss involved in dying to support her claims. To fill this gap in Tallman's account, I propose a view on the badness of death that I call 'Deprivationism'. I argue that this view explains why death is bad for those who die, and that it has some advantages over Tallman's complete lives view in the context of scarce resource allocation. Finally, I consider some objections to the relevance of Deprivationism to resource allocation, and offer my responses.

  14. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... you be active in ways that suit your lifestyle, interests, health, and budget. ... website is filled with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for healthy eating and physical ...

  15. Social aspects of living with rheumatoid arthritis: a qualitative descriptive study in Soweto, South Africa – a low resource context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Manabile Esther

    2008-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA is a chronic illness with important functional, social and employment consequences. We therefore undertook a cross-sectional study, using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health framework, to investigate the personal and social consequences of RA in women, living under largely impoverished conditions. Methods A qualitative case study design was used with a convenience sample of 60 women with RA living in Soweto, South Africa. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to cover a range of experiences including onset of disease, treatment, environmental barriers and facilitators, employment, and social inclusion in family and community life. The outcomes are described according the International Classification of Functioning, Health and Disability framework at the body, person and societal levels and looking at both personal and environmental factors. Results The main features of living with RA were pain, muscle stiffness at the body level, difficulties in doing various activities such as mobility, washing, dressing, domestic activities, using transport and obtaining and maintaining employment at the person level. At the societal level the participants described difficulties moving around, interacting socially and taking part in community activities, fulfilling social roles and earning a living. Environmental facilitators such as assistive devices and health care services improved functioning. Barriers such as physical environments, lack of transport and basic services, such as electricity, and attitudes of others lead to social exclusion, loss of a sense of self and independence. Low income, lack of sufficient public transport, and sparse basic services were poverty features that exacerbated negative experiences. Conclusion The experiences of living with RA in a low resource context are similar to those in mid- and high resource contexts, but are exacerbated by

  16. Managing living marine resources in a dynamic environment: The role of seasonal to decadal climate forecasts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tommasi, Desiree; Stock, Charles A.; Hobday, Alistair J.; Methot, Rick; Kaplan, Isaac C.; Eveson, J. Paige; Holsman, Kirstin; Miller, Timothy J.; Gaichas, Sarah; Gehlen, Marion; Pershing, Andrew; Vecchi, Gabriel A.; Msadek, Rym; Delworth, Tom; Eakin, C. Mark; Haltuch, Melissa A.; Séférian, Roland; Spillman, Claire M.; Hartog, Jason R.; Siedlecki, Samantha; Samhouri, Jameal F.; Muhling, Barbara; Asch, Rebecca G.; Pinsky, Malin L.; Saba, Vincent S.; Kapnick, Sarah B.; Gaitan, Carlos F.; Rykaczewski, Ryan R.; Alexander, Michael A.; Xue, Yan; Pegion, Kathleen V.; Lynch, Patrick; Payne, Mark R.; Kristiansen, Trond; Lehodey, Patrick; Werner, Francisco E.

    2017-03-01

    Recent developments in global dynamical climate prediction systems have allowed for skillful predictions of climate variables relevant to living marine resources (LMRs) at a scale useful to understanding and managing LMRs. Such predictions present opportunities for improved LMR management and industry operations, as well as new research avenues in fisheries science. LMRs respond to climate variability via changes in physiology and behavior. For species and systems where climate-fisheries links are well established, forecasted LMR responses can lead to anticipatory and more effective decisions, benefitting both managers and stakeholders. Here, we provide an overview of climate prediction systems and advances in seasonal to decadal prediction of marine-resource relevant environmental variables. We then describe a range of climate-sensitive LMR decisions that can be taken at lead-times of months to decades, before highlighting a range of pioneering case studies using climate predictions to inform LMR decisions. The success of these case studies suggests that many additional applications are possible. Progress, however, is limited by observational and modeling challenges. Priority developments include strengthening of the mechanistic linkages between climate and marine resource responses, development of LMR models able to explicitly represent such responses, integration of climate driven LMR dynamics in the multi-driver context within which marine resources exist, and improved prediction of ecosystem-relevant variables at the fine regional scales at which most marine resource decisions are made. While there are fundamental limits to predictability, continued advances in these areas have considerable potential to make LMR managers and industry decision more resilient to climate variability and help sustain valuable resources. Concerted dialog between scientists, LMR managers and industry is essential to realizing this potential.

  17. Products to Aid in Daily Living

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... by The Association, nor a guarantee of the reliability of the information or product. For further information ... Information ALS Insight Newsletter Living with ALS Resource Guides Families and ALS Resource Guide Familial ALS Resource ...

  18. Impacts of climate change on living aquatic resources of the world

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Flittner, G.A.

    1993-01-01

    Anthropogenic forced warming of the Earth due to the greenhouse effect could have profound impacts on the world's living aquatic resources. An extensive review is provided of literature concerning such impacts, including physical changes in the ocean and coastal zone, biological changes in coastal wetlands and estuaries, effects of temperature rises and changes in ice cover on marine species, physical and biological impacts on inland waters, and impacts on fisheries. The principal effects would be caused by the increases in temperature and sea-level rise, but changes in precipitation would also be important. Suitable habitats would generally shift poleward and inland. Species would likely shift in abundances and distribution, thus affecting fisheries. It is likely that global warming will produce collapses of some fisheries and expansions of others. The likelihood of collapse may be aggravated by inadequate management due to insufficient authority, unwillingness to act, or lack of knowledge. Options available for reducing the impact of these changes are discussed, along with research needed to help prepare for climate change. 111 refs

  19. The Government Finance Database: A Common Resource for Quantitative Research in Public Financial Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pierson, Kawika; Hand, Michael L; Thompson, Fred

    2015-01-01

    Quantitative public financial management research focused on local governments is limited by the absence of a common database for empirical analysis. While the U.S. Census Bureau distributes government finance data that some scholars have utilized, the arduous process of collecting, interpreting, and organizing the data has led its adoption to be prohibitive and inconsistent. In this article we offer a single, coherent resource that contains all of the government financial data from 1967-2012, uses easy to understand natural-language variable names, and will be extended when new data is available.

  20. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and Diabetes 6 Heart disease is the number ... their diagnoses and support networks. Diabetes and Kidney Disease 12 Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney ...

  1. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... goals—whether you have diabetes or are at risk for the disease. Live well. Eat healthy. Be ... for Patients These three booklets help with diabetes risk assesment, and include an activity tracker and fat ...

  2. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... with diabetes share their stories about hyperglycemia and offer tips on how to treat it. Hypoglycemia and ... of people with diabetes. People living with diabetes offer tips on how to manage your diabetes and ...

  3. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Diabetes and Kidney Disease 12 Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease. People living with diabetes ... onset of the disease. MOVE! This national weight management program is designed to help veterans lose weight, ...

  4. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for healthy eating and physical activity through small, ... Cope with stress and emotions Set goals Stop smoking Prevent diabetes-related health problems Check my blood ...

  5. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Journey for Control This website is filled with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for ... Your GAME PLAN to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Information for Patients These three booklets help with diabetes ...

  6. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Learn more about the symptoms, triggers, and treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and ... Act | Accessibility | Disclaimers | Copyright | Sitemap | For Staff Only | Jobs at NIDDK | Contact Us The National Institute of ...

  7. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... keep your heart healthy. Coping with Diabetes 8 Managing diabetes can be challenging and stressful, but it ... disease. People living with diabetes offer tips on managing your diabetes and preventing kidney disease. Player Controls ...

  8. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... E-MAIL UPDATES External Link Disclaimer National Diabetes Education Program HealthSense Home Make a Plan Articles About ... Learn more about the symptoms, triggers, and treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and ...

  9. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the text smaller. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HOME | CONTACT US | JOBS AT NIDDK | RSS ... living with diabetes and developing habits for healthy eating and physical activity through small, sensible steps. Manage ...

  10. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Diabetes and Kidney Disease 12 Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease. People living with diabetes ... right track. Cope with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors Handouts - Healthy Coping These handouts provide ...

  11. Living the Utopia

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davis, John; Warring, Anette Elisabeth

    2011-01-01

    This article examines experiments in communal living in Britain and Denmark in the early 1970s, using life-story interviews from seventeen members of two British and two Danish communes. It examines communal living as a fusion of radical political principles with the practice of experimental...... collective living. It concludes that the movement's egalitarian principles of resource-sharing, gender equality and the avoidance of hierarchies were broadly achieved, even if the movement obviously did not realize its more ambitious objective of undermining the bourgeois family. Though none...... of the interviewees lives communally now, most remain faithful to the principles behind the movement....

  12. Projecting changes in the distribution and productivity of living marine resources: A critical review of the suite of modelling approaches used in the large European project VECTORS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peck, Myron A.; Arvanitidis, Christos; Butenschön, Momme; Canu, Donata Melaku; Chatzinikolaou, Eva; Cucco, Andrea; Domenici, Paolo; Fernandes, Jose A.; Gasche, Loic; Huebert, Klaus B.; Hufnagl, Marc; Jones, Miranda C.; Kempf, Alexander; Keyl, Friedemann; Maar, Marie; Mahévas, Stéphanie; Marchal, Paul; Nicolas, Delphine; Pinnegar, John K.; Rivot, Etienne; Rochette, Sébastien; Sell, Anne F.; Sinerchia, Matteo; Solidoro, Cosimo; Somerfield, Paul J.; Teal, Lorna R.; Travers-Trolet, Morgan; van de Wolfshaar, Karen E.

    2018-02-01

    We review and compare four broad categories of spatially-explicit modelling approaches currently used to understand and project changes in the distribution and productivity of living marine resources including: 1) statistical species distribution models, 2) physiology-based, biophysical models of single life stages or the whole life cycle of species, 3) food web models, and 4) end-to-end models. Single pressures are rare and, in the future, models must be able to examine multiple factors affecting living marine resources such as interactions between: i) climate-driven changes in temperature regimes and acidification, ii) reductions in water quality due to eutrophication, iii) the introduction of alien invasive species, and/or iv) (over-)exploitation by fisheries. Statistical (correlative) approaches can be used to detect historical patterns which may not be relevant in the future. Advancing predictive capacity of changes in distribution and productivity of living marine resources requires explicit modelling of biological and physical mechanisms. New formulations are needed which (depending on the question) will need to strive for more realism in ecophysiology and behaviour of individuals, life history strategies of species, as well as trophodynamic interactions occurring at different spatial scales. Coupling existing models (e.g. physical, biological, economic) is one avenue that has proven successful. However, fundamental advancements are needed to address key issues such as the adaptive capacity of species/groups and ecosystems. The continued development of end-to-end models (e.g., physics to fish to human sectors) will be critical if we hope to assess how multiple pressures may interact to cause changes in living marine resources including the ecological and economic costs and trade-offs of different spatial management strategies. Given the strengths and weaknesses of the various types of models reviewed here, confidence in projections of changes in the

  13. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Find more about NDEP videos on Youtube here Hyperglycemia and Diabetes 2 Hyperglycemia, or high blood sugar, can occur if diabetes ... People living with diabetes share their stories about hyperglycemia and offer tips on how to treat it. ...

  14. Half-lives of PAHs and temporal microbiota changes in commonly used urban landscaping materials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marja I. Roslund

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Background Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs accumulate in urban soils, and PAH contamination can change soil microbial community composition. Environmental microbiota is associated with human commensal microbiota, immune system and health. Therefore, studies investigating the degradation of PAHs, and the consequences of soil pollution on microbial communities in urban landscaping materials, are crucial. Methods Four landscaping materials (organic matter 1, 2, 13 and 56% were contaminated with PAHs commonly found at urban sites (phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene and benzo(bfluoranthene in PAH concentrations that reflect urban soils in Finland (2.4 µg g -1 soil dry weight. PAHs were analyzed initially and after 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Half-lives of PAHs were determined based on 12-weeks degradation. Bacterial communities were analyzed at 1 and 12 weeks after contamination using Illumina MiSeq 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. Results Half-lives ranged from 1.5 to 4.4 weeks for PAHs with relatively low molecular weights (phenanthrene, fluoranthene and pyrene in landscaping materials containing 1–2% organic matter. In contrast, in materials containing 13% and 56% organic matter, the half-lives ranged from 2.5 to 52 weeks. Shorter half-lives of phenanthrene and fluoranthene were thus associated with low organic matter content. The half-life of pyrene was inversely related to the relative abundance of Beta-, Delta- and Gammaproteobacteria, and diversity of Bacteroidetes and Betaprotebacteria. Compounds with higher molecular weights followed compound-specific patterns. Benzo(bfluoranthene was resistant to degradation and half-life of chrysene was shorter when the relative abundance of Betaproteobacteria was high. Temporal microbiota changes involved increase in the relative abundance of Deltaproteobacteria and decrease in genera Flavobacterium and Rhodanobacter. Exposure to PAHs seems to adjust

  15. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... and treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and Diabetes 6 Heart disease is the number one killer of people ... how to manage your diabetes and keep your heart healthy. Coping with Diabetes 8 Managing diabetes can ...

  16. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... managing your diabetes and preventing kidney disease. Player Controls Use these controls to control the play back of videos. play pause rewind ... out of the calories you consume. Journey for Control This website is filled with information about living ...

  17. Managing a Common Pool Resource: Real Time Decision-Making in a Groundwater Aquifer

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sahu, R.; McLaughlin, D.

    2017-12-01

    In a Common Pool Resource (CPR) such as a groundwater aquifer, multiple landowners (agents) are competing for a limited resource of water. Landowners pump out the water to grow their own crops. Such problems can be posed as differential games, with agents all trying to control the behavior of the shared dynamic system. Each agent aims to maximize his/her own personal objective like agriculture yield, being aware that the action of every other agent collectively influences the behavior of the shared aquifer. The agents therefore choose a subgame perfect Nash equilibrium strategy that derives an optimal action for each agent based on the current state of the aquifer and assumes perfect information of every other agents' objective function. Furthermore, using an Iterated Best Response approach and interpolating techniques, an optimal pumping strategy can be computed for a more-realistic description of the groundwater model under certain assumptions. The numerical implementation of dynamic optimization techniques for a relevant description of the physical system yields results qualitatively different from the previous solutions obtained from simple abstractions.This work aims to bridge the gap between extensive modeling approaches in hydrology and competitive solution strategies in differential game theory.

  18. Scoping the common antecedents of job stress and job satisfaction for nurses (2000-2013) using the job demands-resources model of stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McVicar, Andrew

    2016-03-01

    To identify core antecedents of job stress and job satisfaction, and to explore the potential of stress interventions to improve job satisfaction. Decreased job satisfaction for nurses is strongly associated with increased job stress. Stress management strategies might have the potential to improve job satisfaction. Comparative scoping review of studies (2000-2013) and location of their outcomes within the 'job demands-job resources' (JD-R) model of stress to identify commonalities and trends. Many, but not all, antecedents of both phenomena appeared consistently suggesting they are common mediators. Others were more variable but the appearance of 'emotional demands' as a common antecedent in later studies suggests an evolving influence of the changing work environment. The occurrence of 'shift work' as a common issue in later studies points to further implications for nurses' psychosocial well-being. Job satisfaction problems in nursing might be co-responsive to stress management intervention. Improving the buffering effectiveness of increased resilience and of prominent perceived job resource issues are urgently required. Participatory, psychosocial methods have the potential to raise job resources but will require high-level collaboration by stakeholders, and participative leadership and facilitation by managers to enable better decision-latitude, support for action planning and responsive changes. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the disease. Live well. Eat healthy. Be active. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. Find more about NDEP videos on Youtube here ... hyperglycemia and offer tips on how to treat it. Hypoglycemia and Diabetes 4 Hypoglycemia, or low blood ...

  20. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... food and physical activity, and get the most out of the calories you consume. Journey for Control This website is filled with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for healthy eating and physical activity through small, sensible steps. Manage ...

  1. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... and treatment methods from others living with diabetes. Heart Disease and Diabetes 6 Heart disease is the number one killer of people with ... how to manage your diabetes and keep your heart healthy. Coping with ... Finding Diabetes Support 10 Being diagnosed with diabetes ...

  2. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... choices from every food group, find balance between food and physical activity, and get the most out of the calories you consume. Journey for Control This website is filled with information about living with diabetes and developing habits for healthy eating and physical activity through small, ...

  3. Common Practices from Two Decades of Water Resources Modelling Published in Environmental Modelling & Software: 1997 to 2016

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ames, D. P.; Peterson, M.; Larsen, J.

    2016-12-01

    A steady flow of manuscripts describing integrated water resources management (IWRM) modelling has been published in Environmental Modelling & Software since the journal's inaugural issue in 1997. These papers represent two decades of peer-reviewed scientific knowledge regarding methods, practices, and protocols for conducting IWRM. We have undertaken to explore this specific assemblage of literature with the intention of identifying commonly reported procedures in terms of data integration methods, modelling techniques, approaches to stakeholder participation, means of communication of model results, and other elements of the model development and application life cycle. Initial results from this effort will be presented including a summary of commonly used practices, and their evolution over the past two decades. We anticipate that results will show a pattern of movement toward greater use of both stakeholder/participatory modelling methods as well as increased use of automated methods for data integration and model preparation. Interestingly, such results could be interpreted to show that the availability of better, faster, and more integrated software tools and technologies free the modeler to take a less technocratic and more human approach to water resources modelling.

  4. Commoning in the periphery – The role of the commons for understanding rural continuities and change

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emil Sandström

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available This paper explores how commons reproduce over time and introduces the concept of commoning to discuss rural continuities and change. The point of departure is that commons are essential for local community development in that they have an important role for mediating social change and for local identity production. Through an ethnographic and historical study of a number of commons systems from the village of Ängersjö in the Midwest of Sweden, the paper argues for a more historically and socially grounded understanding of how commons evolve. The paper examines Ängersjö’s commons within two broad historical time frames – the pre-industrial (4th to 20th century and the post-industrial time periods (20th century to the present – in order to understand commons, not just as arenas for resource extraction and resource struggles, but also as important contexts for identity formation, local mobilisation and for shaping rural change. The paper reveals how the commons have co-evolved with changes in society at large and how the meanings and functions of the commons have changed throughout history – from being important economic resources – to cultural and symbolic resources that have created new avenues for collective action.

  5. Community household income and resource utilization for common inpatient pediatric conditions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fieldston, Evan S; Zaniletti, Isabella; Hall, Matthew; Colvin, Jeffrey D; Gottlieb, Laura; Macy, Michelle L; Alpern, Elizabeth R; Morse, Rustin B; Hain, Paul D; Sills, Marion R; Frank, Gary; Shah, Samir S

    2013-12-01

    Child health is influenced by biomedical and socioeconomic factors. Few studies have explored the relationship between community-level income and inpatient resource utilization for children. Our objective was to analyze inpatient costs for children hospitalized with common conditions in relation to zip code-based median annual household income (HHI). Retrospective national cohort from 32 freestanding children's hospitals for asthma, diabetes, bronchiolitis and respiratory syncytial virus, pneumonia, and kidney and urinary tract infections. Standardized cost of care for individual hospitalizations and across hospitalizations for the same patient and condition were modeled by using mixed-effects methods, adjusting for severity of illness, age, gender, and race. Main exposure was median annual HHI. Posthoc tests compared adjusted standardized costs for patients from the lowest and highest income groups. From 116,636 hospitalizations, 4 of 5 conditions had differences at the hospitalization and at the patient level, with lowest-income groups having higher costs. The individual hospitalization level cost differences ranged from $187 (4.1%) to $404 (6.4%). Patient-level cost differences ranged from $310 to $1087 or 6.5% to 15% higher for the lowest-income patients. Higher costs were typically not for laboratory, imaging, or pharmacy costs. In total, patients from lowest income zip codes had $8.4 million more in hospitalization-level costs and $13.6 million more in patient-level costs. Lower community-level HHI is associated with higher inpatient costs of care for 4 of 5 common pediatric conditions. These findings highlight the need to consider socioeconomic status in health care system design, delivery, and reimbursement calculations.

  6. TB preventive therapy for people living with HIV: key considerations for scale-up in resource-limited settings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pathmanathan, I; Ahmedov, S; Pevzner, E; Anyalechi, G; Modi, S; Kirking, H; Cavanaugh, J S

    2018-06-01

    Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death for persons living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). TB preventive therapy (TPT) works synergistically with, and independently of, antiretroviral therapy to reduce TB morbidity, mortality and incidence among PLHIV. However, although TPT is a crucial and cost-effective component of HIV care for adults and children and has been recommended as an international standard of care for over a decade, it remains highly underutilized. If we are to end the global TB epidemic, we must address the significant reservoir of tuberculous infection, especially in those, such as PLHIV, who are most likely to progress to TB disease. To do so, we must confront the pervasive perception that barriers to TPT scale-up are insurmountable in resource-limited settings. Here we review available evidence to address several commonly stated obstacles to TPT scale-up, including the need for the tuberculin skin test, limited diagnostic capacity to reliably exclude TB disease, concerns about creating drug resistance, suboptimal patient adherence to therapy, inability to monitor for and prevent adverse events, a 'one size fits all' option for TPT regimen and duration, and uncertainty about TPT use in children, adolescents, and pregnant women. We also discuss TPT delivery in the era of differentiated care for PLHIV, how best to tackle advanced planning for drug procurement and supply chain management, and how to create an enabling environment for TPT scale-up success.

  7. Nature, economics, property and commons. Subversive notes inspired by Elinor Ostrom

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauriola Vincenzo M.

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Nature-economy relations also are the result of economics’ concepts, ideas and paradigms. Heterodox economic views and paradigms are urgently needed to foster shifts towards the planet’s future sustainability paths. Elinor Ostrom, 2009 Nobel economics laureate, stands as one of the authors whose long neglected views are most inspiring in subverting mainstream paradigms on property regimes and natural resource management. Challenging the tragedy of the commons orthodoxy, she shows humans are able to escape the prisoner’s dilemma, as well as the public vs private property, and state vs market modern dichotomy in natural resources’ management models, by recognizing common property as a third option, and re-inventing the commons as indeed diverse and resilient institutions to foster more sustainable economy-nature relations. Brazil’s indigenous territories are cited as a living example of commons’ sustainability, although increasingly threatened by economic growth.

  8. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... and Kidney Disease 12 Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease. People living with diabetes offer tips on managing your diabetes and preventing kidney disease. Player Controls Use these controls to control the play back of videos. ... with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors Handouts - Healthy Coping These handouts provide facts, tips, ...

  9. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... 65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In-person programs Videos and podcasts Presentations Mobile Application Website Webinar Language Select one: English Spanish Vietnamese Privacy Policy | Freedom ...

  10. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the play back of videos. play pause rewind ... This easy-to-use resource guide helps you make smart choices from every food group, find balance between food and physical activity, ...

  11. Ecology and the Tragedy of the Commons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Peter Roopnarine

    2013-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper develops mathematical models of the tragedy of the commons analogous to ecological models of resource consumption. Tragedies differ fundamentally from predator–prey relationships in nature because human consumers of a resource are rarely controlled solely by that resource. Tragedies do occur, however, at the level of the ecosystem, where multiple species interactions are involved. Human resource systems are converging rapidly toward ecosystem-type systems as the number of exploited resources increase, raising the probability of system-wide tragedies in the human world. Nevertheless, common interests exclusive of exploited commons provide feasible options for avoiding tragedy in a converged world.

  12. Recent research in data description of the measurement property resource on common data dictionary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Tielin; Fan, Zitian; Wang, Chunxi; Liu, Xiaojing; Wang, Shuo; Zhao, Hua

    2018-03-01

    A method for measurement equipment data description has been proposed based on the property resource analysis. The applications of common data dictionary (CDD) to devices and equipment is mainly used in digital factory to advance the management not only in the enterprise, also to the different enterprise in the same data environment. In this paper, we can make a brief of the data flow in the whole manufacture enterprise and the automatic trigger the process of the data exchange. Furthermore,the application of the data dictionary is available for the measurement and control equipment, which can also be used in other different industry in smart manufacture.

  13. Bio-patents. The enclosure of the living Biopatentes. El cercamiento de lo vivo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Ptqk

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Bio-patents contribute to the privatization of the living and their exclusion from the commons, and thus reproduce and update colonial mechanisms in the governance of natural resources. Two current alternatives to the biopatentes systems are analized: the logic of open and free access to resources and the concept of environment as common heritage of mankind.El régimen de biopatentes, que contribuye a la privatización de la materia viva y a su exclusión del patrimonio común, reproduce y actualiza los mecanismos del proyecto colonial en la gestión de los recursos de la naturaleza. Se analizan dos alternativas al sistema de biopatentes: la que corresponde con la lógica del acceso libre y abierto a los recursos y la que desmboca en el concepto de medio ambiente como patrimonio común de la Humanidad.

  14. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... text smaller. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HOME | ... This easy-to-use resource guide helps you make smart choices from every food group, find balance between food and physical activity, ...

  15. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... booklet addresses the special challenges for very large people who are physically active and provides tips and ideas to become more active and healthier—no ... adult (65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable ...

  16. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Services HOME | CONTACT US | JOBS AT NIDDK | RSS FEEDS | GET E-MAIL UPDATES External Link Disclaimer National ... NDEP Selected Resources Need help getting started, or feeling overwhelmed? Take a look at some of the ...

  17. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Manage Your Weight Small Steps. Big Rewards. Your GAME PLAN to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Information for ... 65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In-person programs Videos and podcasts Presentations ...

  18. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... E-MAIL UPDATES External Link Disclaimer National Diabetes Education Program HealthSense Home Make a Plan Articles About ... 65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In-person programs Videos and podcasts Presentations ...

  19. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... resources below to help you get on the right track. Cope with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self- ... community. Follow NDEP Filter Results Help Me Select one: Eat healthy Be active Manage my weight Cope ...

  20. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the text smaller. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HOME | CONTACT US | JOBS AT NIDDK | RSS ... resources below to help you get on the right track. Cope with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self- ...

  1. Building a model: developing genomic resources for common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) with low coverage genome sequencing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Straub, Shannon C K; Fishbein, Mark; Livshultz, Tatyana; Foster, Zachary; Parks, Matthew; Weitemier, Kevin; Cronn, Richard C; Liston, Aaron

    2011-05-04

    Milkweeds (Asclepias L.) have been extensively investigated in diverse areas of evolutionary biology and ecology; however, there are few genetic resources available to facilitate and compliment these studies. This study explored how low coverage genome sequencing of the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) could be useful in characterizing the genome of a plant without prior genomic information and for development of genomic resources as a step toward further developing A. syriaca as a model in ecology and evolution. A 0.5× genome of A. syriaca was produced using Illumina sequencing. A virtually complete chloroplast genome of 158,598 bp was assembled, revealing few repeats and loss of three genes: accD, clpP, and ycf1. A nearly complete rDNA cistron (18S-5.8S-26S; 7,541 bp) and 5S rDNA (120 bp) sequence were obtained. Assessment of polymorphism revealed that the rDNA cistron and 5S rDNA had 0.3% and 26.7% polymorphic sites, respectively. A partial mitochondrial genome sequence (130,764 bp), with identical gene content to tobacco, was also assembled. An initial characterization of repeat content indicated that Ty1/copia-like retroelements are the most common repeat type in the milkweed genome. At least one A. syriaca microread hit 88% of Catharanthus roseus (Apocynaceae) unigenes (median coverage of 0.29×) and 66% of single copy orthologs (COSII) in asterids (median coverage of 0.14×). From this partial characterization of the A. syriaca genome, markers for population genetics (microsatellites) and phylogenetics (low-copy nuclear genes) studies were developed. The results highlight the promise of next generation sequencing for development of genomic resources for any organism. Low coverage genome sequencing allows characterization of the high copy fraction of the genome and exploration of the low copy fraction of the genome, which facilitate the development of molecular tools for further study of a target species and its relatives. This study represents a first

  2. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... exercise and physical activity for at all activity levels, and has tips to help you be active in ways that suit your lifestyle, interests, health, and budget. Eat Healthy A Healthier You This easy-to-use resource guide ...

  3. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Community health worker Community organization Age Select one: Child Teen and young adult Adult Older adult (65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In-person programs Videos and podcasts Presentations Mobile Application Website Webinar Language ...

  4. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Take my medicine I Am A Select one: Person with diabetes Person with prediabetes Person at risk for diabetes Family member, friend, or ... Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In-person programs Videos and podcasts Presentations Mobile Application Website ...

  5. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... the resources below to help you get on the right track. Cope with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors Handouts - Healthy Coping These handouts provide ... This booklet addresses the special challenges for very large people who are ...

  6. The economic value of remote sensing of earth resources from space: An ERTS overview and the value of continuity of service. Volume 3: Intensive use of living resources: Agriculture. Part 1: Overview

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kornhauser, A. L.; Wilson, L. B.

    1974-01-01

    Potential economic benefits obtainable from a state-of-the-art ERS system in the resource area of intensive use of living resources, agriculture, are studied. A spectrum of equal capability (cost saving), increased capability, and new capability benefits are quantified. These benefits are estimated via ECON developed models of the agricultural marketplace and include benefits of improved production and distribution of agricultural crops. It is shown that increased capability benefits and new capability benefits result from a reduction of losses due to disease and insect infestation given ERS's capability to distinguish crop vigor and from the improvement in world trade negotiations given ERS's worldwide surveying capability.

  7. Commons problems, common ground: Earth-surface dynamics and the social-physical interdisciplinary frontier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazarus, E.

    2015-12-01

    In the archetypal "tragedy of the commons" narrative, local farmers pasture their cows on the town common. Soon the common becomes crowded with cows, who graze it bare, and the arrangement of open access to a shared resource ultimately fails. The "tragedy" involves social and physical processes, but the denouement depends on who is telling the story. An economist might argue that the system collapses because each farmer always has a rational incentive to graze one more cow. An ecologist might remark that the rate of grass growth is an inherent control on the common's carrying capacity. And a geomorphologist might point out that processes of soil degradation almost always outstrip processes of soil production. Interdisciplinary research into human-environmental systems still tends to favor disciplinary vantages. In the context of Anthropocene grand challenges - including fundamental insight into dynamics of landscape resilience, and what the dominance of human activities means for processes of change and evolution on the Earth's surface - two disciplines in particular have more to talk about than they might think. Here, I use three examples - (1) beach nourishment, (2) upstream/downstream fluvial asymmetry, and (3) current and historical "land grabbing" - to illustrate a range of interconnections between physical Earth-surface science and common-pool resource economics. In many systems, decision-making and social complexity exert stronger controls on landscape expression than do physical geomorphological processes. Conversely, human-environmental research keeps encountering multi-scale, emergent problems of resource use made 'common-pool' by water, nutrient and sediment transport dynamics. Just as Earth-surface research can benefit from decades of work on common-pool resource systems, quantitative Earth-surface science can make essential contributions to efforts addressing complex problems in environmental sustainability.

  8. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Manage Your Weight Small Steps. Big Rewards. Your GAME PLAN to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Information for Patients These three booklets ... Teen and young adult Adult Older adult (65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs ... Application Website Webinar Language ...

  9. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... tips on managing your diabetes and preventing kidney disease. Player Controls Use these controls to control the play back of videos. ... Watch more videos from NDEP Selected Resources Need help getting started, or feeling overwhelmed? Take a look at some of the ...

  10. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Steps. Big Rewards. Your GAME PLAN to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes: Information for Patients These three booklets help with ... diabetes Person with prediabetes Person at risk for diabetes Family member, friend, or ... Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs ...

  11. A common basis for facilitated legitimate exchange of biological materials proposed by the European Culture Collections' Organisation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dagmar Fritze

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Being charged with the task of accessioning and supplying of living microbiological material, microbial culture collections are institutions that play a central role between the interests of a variety of user communities. On the one side are the providers of living microbiological material, such as individual scientists, institutions and countries of origin and on the other side are the various kinds of recipients/users of cultures of microorganisms from academia and industry. Thus, providing access to high quality biological material and scientific services while at the same time observing donor countries' rights, intellectual property rights, biosafety and biosecurity aspects poses demanding challenges. E.g. donor countries rights relate to Article 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity: "Contracting parties …. recognize the sovereign rights of states over their natural resources …. shall facilitate access to resources … and not impose restrictions that run counter to the aims of the Convention. Access to natural resources shall be by mutually agreed terms and subject to prior informed consent ..." The use of a proposed standard contract by culture collections is discussed as a way of contractually safeguarding the existing research commons, while observing the new rights established in the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as other existing and new legislation impacting on the accessibility of living microbial material.

  12. Five Theses on the Common

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gigi Roggero

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available I present five theses on the common within the context of the transformations of capitalist social relations as well as their contemporary global crisis. My framework involves ‘‘cognitive capitalism,’’ new processes of class composition, and the production of living knowledge and subjectivity. The commons is often discussed today in reference to the privatizationand commodification of ‘‘common goods.’’ This suggests a naturalistic and conservative image of the common, unhooked from the relations of production. I distinguish between commons and the common: the first model is related to Karl Polanyi, the second to Karl Marx. As elaborated in the postoperaista debate, the common assumes an antagonistic double status: it is boththe plane of the autonomy of living labor and it is subjected to capitalist ‘‘capture.’’ Consequently, what is at stake is not the conservation of ‘‘commons,’’ but rather the production of the common and its organization into new institutions that would take us beyond the exhausted dialectic between public and private.

  13. Living in a network of scaling cities and finite resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qubbaj, Murad R; Shutters, Shade T; Muneepeerakul, Rachata

    2015-02-01

    Many urban phenomena exhibit remarkable regularity in the form of nonlinear scaling behaviors, but their implications on a system of networked cities has never been investigated. Such knowledge is crucial for our ability to harness the complexity of urban processes to further sustainability science. In this paper, we develop a dynamical modeling framework that embeds population-resource dynamics-a generalized Lotka-Volterra system with modifications to incorporate the urban scaling behaviors-in complex networks in which cities may be linked to the resources of other cities and people may migrate in pursuit of higher welfare. We find that isolated cities (i.e., no migration) are susceptible to collapse if they do not have access to adequate resources. Links to other cities may help cities that would otherwise collapse due to insufficient resources. The effects of inter-city links, however, can vary due to the interplay between the nonlinear scaling behaviors and network structure. The long-term population level of a city is, in many settings, largely a function of the city's access to resources over which the city has little or no competition. Nonetheless, careful investigation of dynamics is required to gain mechanistic understanding of a particular city-resource network because cities and resources may collapse and the scaling behaviors may influence the effects of inter-city links, thereby distorting what topological metrics really measure.

  14. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... tips on managing your diabetes and preventing kidney disease. Player Controls Use these controls to control the play ... a look at some of the resources below to help you get on the right track. Cope with Stress and Emotions AADE7 Self-Care Behaviors Handouts - Healthy ...

  15. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... a program to prevent or delay the onset of the disease. MOVE! This national weight management program is designed to help veterans lose weight, ... professional K-8th grade Community health worker Community organization Age ... (65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online programs In- ...

  16. Strengths of common resources for managing emergencies in the Spanish nuclear power plants (CAE y UME)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blas, J. de

    2014-01-01

    Following the accident at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plants, the electrical sector of nuclear generation recognised the need to reinforce the capacities that the nuclear power plants already had and which they were developing in order to satisfy the requisites of the stress tests, with the additional support of equipment and human resources common to all of them. Thus the idea arose to create a Spanish emergency Support centre. Its scope included an intervention unit, pumping equipment and electrical generation, a centralised warehouse and transfer logistics. UNESA-UME Collaboration Protocol With the collaboration of the CSN as a mediator, the UME reached an agreement with the nuclear electrical sector (UNESA) in order to be able to increase knowledge about the Spanish nuclear power plants and establish a means of collaboration to be able to act with their own human and equipment resources at a site that might suffer an accident such as the one at the Japanese plants of Fukushima-Daiichi. (Author)

  17. Profiling unauthorized natural resource users for better targeting of conservation interventions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harrison, Mariel; Baker, Julia; Twinamatsiko, Medard; Milner-Gulland, E J

    2015-12-01

    Unauthorized use of natural resources is a key threat to many protected areas. Approaches to reducing this threat include law enforcement and integrated conservation and development (ICD) projects, but for such ICDs to be targeted effectively, it is important to understand who is illegally using which natural resources and why. The nature of unauthorized behavior makes it difficult to ascertain this information through direct questioning. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, has many ICD projects, including authorizing some local people to use certain nontimber forest resources from the park. However, despite over 25 years of ICD, unauthorized resource use continues. We used household surveys, indirect questioning (unmatched count technique), and focus group discussions to generate profiles of authorized and unauthorized resource users and to explore motivations for unauthorized activity. Overall, unauthorized resource use was most common among people from poor households who lived closest to the park boundary and farthest from roads and trading centers. Other motivations for unauthorized resource use included crop raiding by wild animals, inequity of revenue sharing, and lack of employment, factors that created resentment among the poorest communities. In some communities, benefits obtained from ICD were reported to be the greatest deterrents against unauthorized activity, although law enforcement ranked highest overall. Despite the sensitive nature of exploring unauthorized resource use, management-relevant insights into the profiles and motivations of unauthorized resource users can be gained from a combination of survey techniques, as adopted here. To reduce unauthorized activity at Bwindi, we suggest ICD benefit the poorest people living in remote areas and near the park boundary by providing affordable alternative sources of forest products and addressing crop raiding. To prevent resentment from driving further unauthorized activity, ICDs should be

  18. Experiments on common property management

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Soest, D.P.; Shogren, J.F.

    2013-01-01

    Common property resources are (renewable) natural resources where current excessive extraction reduces future resource availability, and the use of which is de facto restricted to a specific set of agents, such as inhabitants of a village or members of a community; think of community-owned forests,

  19. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Your Everyday Guide from the National Institute on Aging This guide has many types of exercise and physical activity for at all activity levels, and has tips to help you be active in ways that suit your lifestyle, interests, health, and budget. Eat Healthy A Healthier You This easy-to-use resource ...

  20. Diabetes HealthSense: Resources for Living Well

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... or school health professional K-8th grade Community health worker Community organization Age Select one: Child Teen and young adult Adult Older adult (65+) Type of Resource Select one: Printable documents Online ... The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Bethesda, MD 20892-2560, Telephone: 301.496.3583

  1. Building a model: developing genomic resources for common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca with low coverage genome sequencing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Weitemier Kevin

    2011-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Milkweeds (Asclepias L. have been extensively investigated in diverse areas of evolutionary biology and ecology; however, there are few genetic resources available to facilitate and compliment these studies. This study explored how low coverage genome sequencing of the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L. could be useful in characterizing the genome of a plant without prior genomic information and for development of genomic resources as a step toward further developing A. syriaca as a model in ecology and evolution. Results A 0.5× genome of A. syriaca was produced using Illumina sequencing. A virtually complete chloroplast genome of 158,598 bp was assembled, revealing few repeats and loss of three genes: accD, clpP, and ycf1. A nearly complete rDNA cistron (18S-5.8S-26S; 7,541 bp and 5S rDNA (120 bp sequence were obtained. Assessment of polymorphism revealed that the rDNA cistron and 5S rDNA had 0.3% and 26.7% polymorphic sites, respectively. A partial mitochondrial genome sequence (130,764 bp, with identical gene content to tobacco, was also assembled. An initial characterization of repeat content indicated that Ty1/copia-like retroelements are the most common repeat type in the milkweed genome. At least one A. syriaca microread hit 88% of Catharanthus roseus (Apocynaceae unigenes (median coverage of 0.29× and 66% of single copy orthologs (COSII in asterids (median coverage of 0.14×. From this partial characterization of the A. syriaca genome, markers for population genetics (microsatellites and phylogenetics (low-copy nuclear genes studies were developed. Conclusions The results highlight the promise of next generation sequencing for development of genomic resources for any organism. Low coverage genome sequencing allows characterization of the high copy fraction of the genome and exploration of the low copy fraction of the genome, which facilitate the development of molecular tools for further study of a target species

  2. Sharing network resources

    CERN Document Server

    Parekh, Abhay

    2014-01-01

    Resource Allocation lies at the heart of network control. In the early days of the Internet the scarcest resource was bandwidth, but as the network has evolved to become an essential utility in the lives of billions, the nature of the resource allocation problem has changed. This book attempts to describe the facets of resource allocation that are most relevant to modern networks. It is targeted at graduate students and researchers who have an introductory background in networking and who desire to internalize core concepts before designing new protocols and applications. We start from the fun

  3. Creating a data resource: what will it take to build a medical information commons?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deverka, Patricia A; Majumder, Mary A; Villanueva, Angela G; Anderson, Margaret; Bakker, Annette C; Bardill, Jessica; Boerwinkle, Eric; Bubela, Tania; Evans, Barbara J; Garrison, Nanibaa' A; Gibbs, Richard A; Gentleman, Robert; Glazer, David; Goldstein, Melissa M; Greely, Hank; Harris, Crane; Knoppers, Bartha M; Koenig, Barbara A; Kohane, Isaac S; La Rosa, Salvatore; Mattison, John; O'Donnell, Christopher J; Rai, Arti K; Rehm, Heidi L; Rodriguez, Laura L; Shelton, Robert; Simoncelli, Tania; Terry, Sharon F; Watson, Michael S; Wilbanks, John; Cook-Deegan, Robert; McGuire, Amy L

    2017-09-22

    National and international public-private partnerships, consortia, and government initiatives are underway to collect and share genomic, personal, and healthcare data on a massive scale. Ideally, these efforts will contribute to the creation of a medical information commons (MIC), a comprehensive data resource that is widely available for both research and clinical uses. Stakeholder participation is essential in clarifying goals, deepening understanding of areas of complexity, and addressing long-standing policy concerns such as privacy and security and data ownership. This article describes eight core principles proposed by a diverse group of expert stakeholders to guide the formation of a successful, sustainable MIC. These principles promote formation of an ethically sound, inclusive, participant-centric MIC and provide a framework for advancing the policy response to data-sharing opportunities and challenges.

  4. The importance of live-feed traps - farming marine fish species

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Rasmus; Nielsen, Max; Abate, Tenaw Gedefaw

    2017-01-01

    This article analyses the challenges of different live-feed regimes for the rearing of marine finfish larvae and discusses the potential alternative live feeds to avert a future live-feed trap. Live feeds are indispensable for the successful rearing of larvae of most marine fish species. Brine...... shrimps (Artemia) and rotifers comprise the live feeds of choice in marine aquaculture today. However, their nutritional composition is deficient in especially essential fatty acids, and enrichment with fish oil is needed. Fish oil is considered a limited resource owing to its origin in fully exploited...... wild fish stocks. Moreover, fluctuations of the natural population of Artemia will, most likely, influence future availability and prices. This emphasizes the need for optimal exploitation of available live-feed resources and development of new sustainable alternatives, such as copepods. An array...

  5. Unequal Gain of Equal Resources across Racial Groups.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Assari, Shervin

    2017-08-05

    The health effects of economic resources (eg, education, employment, and living place) and psychological assets (eg, self-efficacy, perceived control over life, anger control, and emotions) are well-known. This article summarizes the results of a growing body of evidence documenting Blacks' diminished return, defined as a systematically smaller health gain from economic resources and psychological assets for Blacks in comparison to Whites. Due to structural barriers that Blacks face in their daily lives, the very same resources and assets generate smaller health gain for Blacks compared to Whites. Even in the presence of equal access to resources and assets, such unequal health gain constantly generates a racial health gap between Blacks and Whites in the United States. In this paper, a number of public policies are recommended based on these findings. First and foremost, public policies should not merely focus on equalizing access to resources and assets, but also reduce the societal and structural barriers that hinder Blacks. Policy solutions should aim to reduce various manifestations of structural racism including but not limited to differential pay, residential segregation, lower quality of education, and crime in Black and urban communities. As income was not found to follow the same pattern demonstrated for other resources and assets (ie, income generated similar decline in risk of mortality for Whites and Blacks), policies that enforce equal income and increase minimum wage for marginalized populations are essential. Improving quality of education of youth and employability of young adults will enable Blacks to compete for high paying jobs. Policies that reduce racism and discrimination in the labor market are also needed. Without such policies, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate the sustained racial health gap in the United States. © 2018 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open

  6. Community Resource Uses and Ethiopian Wolf Conservation in Mount Abune Yosef

    Science.gov (United States)

    Eshete, Girma; Tesfay, Girmay; Bauer, Hans; Ashenafi, Zelealem Tefera; de Iongh, Hans; Marino, Jorgelina

    2015-09-01

    People who perceive economic benefits and enjoy unrestricted access to natural resources tend to support ecosystem conservation efforts. Our study explores whether this remains true in remnant patches of Afroalpine ecosystem in North Ethiopia, where communal land provides valuable natural resources for the local communities and also sustain small populations of the endangered Ethiopian wolf ( Canis simensis). Questionnaires were designed to assess ecological and socio-economic characteristics of the livelihoods of the Amhara people living in Mount Abune Yosef and their attitudes toward Afroalpine and Ethiopian wolf conservation. Of the 120 households interviewed, selected randomly from across eight villages, 80 % benefited from natural resources by grazing their livestock and harvesting firewood and grasses. The majority (90 %) also suffered from livestock predation by Ethiopian wolves and common jackals (Canis aureus) and crop raiding by geladas ( Theropithecus gelada), birds, and rodents, yet more than half reported a positive attitudes toward Ethiopian wolves (66 %). People with positive attitudes tended to live close to the communal land, to own more livestock, and to be unaffected by conflict. Many also recognized the need to protect the Afroalpine habitats of Abune Yosef (71 %), and this attitude predominated among the literate, households that owned land, had smaller herds and were further away. We discussed how people's attitudes were modulated by human-wildlife conflicts and by the benefits derived from the access to natural resources in communal land, and the implications for the conservation of Afroalpine ecosystem and the flagship Ethiopian wolf.

  7. 'Smart' homes and telecare for independent living.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tang, P; Venables, T

    2000-01-01

    Telecare services and 'smart' homes share a common technological base in information technology and telecommunications. There is growing interest in both telecare services and smart homes, although they have been studied in isolation. Telecare has been driven largely by perceived cost savings and improved service delivery to the home, leading to improved quality of life and independent living. Smart homes are also expected to provide better and safer living conditions. The integration of the two should produce more secure and autonomous living. There are different forms of telecare services, as there are different types of smart homes, each ranging from basic systems involving the use of alarms and the ordinary telephone to intelligent monitoring with sensors and interactive communication. The introduction of these systems has policy implications, such as the need for coordination between health, social services and housing policy makers, which will reduce duplication and inefficient allocation of resources. Successful delivery of telecare to the home is as much dependent on the construction and condition of the housing stock as it is on the ability of the care provider to meet users' needs. If the UK National Health Service (NHS) could replace a significant proportion of domiciliary nursing visits by telephone calls, then savings of up of 200 million Pounds per annum would be possible.

  8. Stress associated with group living in a long-lived bird

    OpenAIRE

    Selva, Nuria; Cortés-Avizanda, Ainara; Lemus, Jesús A.; Blanco, Guillermo; Mueller, Thomas; Heinrich, Bernd; Donázar, José A.

    2011-01-01

    Many long-lived avian species adopt life strategies that involve a gregarious way of life at juvenile and sub-adult stages and territoriality during adulthood. However, the potential associated costs of these life styles, such as stress, are poorly understood. We examined the effects of group living, sex and parasite load on the baseline concentration of faecal stress hormone (corticosterone) metabolites in a wild population of common ravens (Corvus corax). Corticosterone concentrations were ...

  9. Disability and Health: Healthy Living

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... About CDC.gov . Disability & Health Home Disability Overview Disability Inclusion Barriers to Inclusion Inclusion Strategies Inclusion in Programs & Activities Resources Healthy Living Disability & Physical Activity Disability & Obesity Disability & Smoking Disability & Breast ...

  10. Concepts and Methods of Common Property Resource Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Om Gurung

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available This research paper has two-fold objectives: (i to familiarize the graduate students majoring in anthropology with the theoretical underpinnings of cultural ecology, and (ii to analyze and explicate the ecological-cultural adaptations among the communities living in the harsh mountain ecological setting of eastern Nepal and their traditional organizations and institutions contributing to community welfare and social equity within the framework of cultural ecology. The paper has been based on the impressionistic data garnered in from the Himalayan ecological setting in eastern Nepal.DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v1i0.273Dhaulagiri Vol.1 (2005 pp.1-32

  11. Topography- and management-mediated resource gradients maintain rare and common plant diversity around paddy terraces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uematsu, Yuta; Ushimaru, Atushi

    2013-09-01

    Examining the causes of interspecific differences in susceptibility to bidirectional land-use changes (land abandonment and use-intensification) is important for understanding the mechanisms of global biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes. We tested the hypothesis that rare (endangered) plant species prefer wet and oligotrophic areas within topography- and management-mediated resource (soil water content, nutrient, and aboveground biomass) gradients, making them more susceptible to both abandonment and use-intensification of agricultural lands. We demonstrated that topography and management practices generated resource gradients in seminatural grasslands around traditional paddy terraces. Terraced topography and management practices produced a soil moisture gradient within levees and a nutrient gradient within paddy terraces. Both total and rare species diversity increased with soil water content. Total species diversity increased in more eutrophied areas with low aboveground biomass, whereas rare species diversity was high under oligotrophic conditions. Rare and common species were differentially distributed along the human-induced nutrient gradient, with rare species preferring wet, nutrient-poor environments in the agricultural landscapes studied. We suggest that conservation efforts should concentrate on wet, nutrient-poor areas within such landscapes, which can be located easily using land-use and topography maps. This strategy would reduce the costs of finding and conserving rare grassland species in a given agricultural landscape.

  12. Projecting changes in the distribution and productivity of living marine resources: A critical review of the suite of modelling approaches used in the large European project VECTORS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Peck, Myron A.; Arvanitidis, Christos; Butenschön, Momme; Canu, Donata Melaku; Chatzinikolaou, Eva; Cucco, Andrea; Domenici, Paolo; Fernandes, Jose A.; Gasche, Loic; Huebert, Klaus B.; Hufnagl, Marc; Jones, Miranda C.; Kempf, Alexander; Keyl, Friedemann; Maar, Marie; Mahévas, Stéphanie; Marchal, Paul; Nicolas, Delphine; Pinnegar, John K.; Rivot, Etienne; Rochette, Sébastien; Sell, Anne F.; Sinerchia, Matteo; Solidoro, Cosimo; Somerfield, Paul J.; Teal, Lorna R.; Travers-trolet, Morgan; De Wolfshaar, Van Karen E.

    2018-01-01

    We review and compare four broad categories of spatially-explicit modelling approaches currently used to understand and project changes in the distribution and productivity of living marine resources including: 1) statistical species distribution models, 2) physiology-based, biophysical models of

  13. Examining Live-In Foreign Domestic Helpers as a Coping Resource for Family Caregivers of People With Dementia in Singapore.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Basnyat, Iccha; Chang, Leanne

    2017-09-01

    In Singapore, the responsibility of caring for persons with dementia falls on family members who cope with a long-term caregiver burden, depending on available support resources. Hiring foreign domestic workers to alleviate caregiver burden becomes a prevalent coping strategy that caregivers adopt. This strategy allows caregivers to provide home care as part of fulfilling family obligations while managing the caregiver burden. This study aimed to investigate primary caregivers' relationship with hired support and its impact on coping with caregiver burden. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted with primary caregivers who hired live-in domestic helpers to take care of their family members with dementia. The findings revealed that caregivers perceived the normative obligations to provide home care to family members with dementia. They sought support from domestic helpers to cope with physical and mental burnout, disruption of normal routines, and avoidance of financial strain. A mutual-support relationship was built between caregivers and domestic helpers through trust and interdependence. The presence of domestic helpers as a coping resource reveals the positive outcomes of problem-, emotional-, and diversion-focused coping. This study illustrates that coping strategies are employed in different ways depending on the needs of caregivers, access to infrastructure, cultural expectations, and available resources.

  14. Resource allocation of in vitro fertilization: a nationwide register-based cohort study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sevón Tiina

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Infertility is common and in vitro fertilization (IVF is a widely used treatment. In IVF the need increases and the effectiveness and appropriateness decrease by age. The purpose of this study was to describe allocation of resources for IVF by women's age, socioeconomic position, area of residence and treatment sector (public vs. private and to discuss how fairly the IVF resources are allocated in Finland. Methods Women who received IVF between 1996 and 1998 (N = 9175 were identified from the reimbursement records of the Social Insurance Institution (SII. Information on IVF women's background characteristics came from the Central Population Register and the SII, on treatment costs from IVF clinics and the SII, and on births from the Medical Birth Register. The main outcome measures were success of IVF by number of cycles and treated women, expenditures per IVF cycles, per women, per live-birth, and per treatment sector, and private and public expenditures. Expenditures were estimated from health care visits and costs. Results During a mean period of 1.5 years, older women (women aged 40 or older received 1.4 times more IVF treatment cycles than younger women (women aged below 30. The success rate decreased by age: from 22 live births per 100 cycles among younger women to 6 per 100 among older women. The mean cost of a live birth increased by age: compared to younger women, costs per born live birth of older women were 3-fold. Calculated by population, public expenditure was allocated most to young women and women from the highest socioeconomic position. Regional differences were not remarkable. Conclusion Children of older infertile women involve more expense due to the lower success rates of IVF. Socioeconomic differences suggest unfair resource allocation in Finland.

  15. Resource allocation of in vitro fertilization: a nationwide register-based cohort study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klemetti, Reija; Gissler, Mika; Sevón, Tiina; Hemminki, Elina

    2007-01-01

    Background Infertility is common and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is a widely used treatment. In IVF the need increases and the effectiveness and appropriateness decrease by age. The purpose of this study was to describe allocation of resources for IVF by women's age, socioeconomic position, area of residence and treatment sector (public vs. private) and to discuss how fairly the IVF resources are allocated in Finland. Methods Women who received IVF between 1996 and 1998 (N = 9175) were identified from the reimbursement records of the Social Insurance Institution (SII). Information on IVF women's background characteristics came from the Central Population Register and the SII, on treatment costs from IVF clinics and the SII, and on births from the Medical Birth Register. The main outcome measures were success of IVF by number of cycles and treated women, expenditures per IVF cycles, per women, per live-birth, and per treatment sector, and private and public expenditures. Expenditures were estimated from health care visits and costs. Results During a mean period of 1.5 years, older women (women aged 40 or older) received 1.4 times more IVF treatment cycles than younger women (women aged below 30). The success rate decreased by age: from 22 live births per 100 cycles among younger women to 6 per 100 among older women. The mean cost of a live birth increased by age: compared to younger women, costs per born live birth of older women were 3-fold. Calculated by population, public expenditure was allocated most to young women and women from the highest socioeconomic position. Regional differences were not remarkable. Conclusion Children of older infertile women involve more expense due to the lower success rates of IVF. Socioeconomic differences suggest unfair resource allocation in Finland. PMID:18154645

  16. Resource allocation of in vitro fertilization: a nationwide register-based cohort study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klemetti, Reija; Gissler, Mika; Sevón, Tiina; Hemminki, Elina

    2007-12-21

    Infertility is common and in vitro fertilization (IVF) is a widely used treatment. In IVF the need increases and the effectiveness and appropriateness decrease by age. The purpose of this study was to describe allocation of resources for IVF by women's age, socioeconomic position, area of residence and treatment sector (public vs. private) and to discuss how fairly the IVF resources are allocated in Finland. Women who received IVF between 1996 and 1998 (N = 9175) were identified from the reimbursement records of the Social Insurance Institution (SII). Information on IVF women's background characteristics came from the Central Population Register and the SII, on treatment costs from IVF clinics and the SII, and on births from the Medical Birth Register. The main outcome measures were success of IVF by number of cycles and treated women, expenditures per IVF cycles, per women, per live-birth, and per treatment sector, and private and public expenditures. Expenditures were estimated from health care visits and costs. During a mean period of 1.5 years, older women (women aged 40 or older) received 1.4 times more IVF treatment cycles than younger women (women aged below 30). The success rate decreased by age: from 22 live births per 100 cycles among younger women to 6 per 100 among older women. The mean cost of a live birth increased by age: compared to younger women, costs per born live birth of older women were 3-fold. Calculated by population, public expenditure was allocated most to young women and women from the highest socioeconomic position. Regional differences were not remarkable. Children of older infertile women involve more expense due to the lower success rates of IVF. Socioeconomic differences suggest unfair resource allocation in Finland.

  17. Living with Volcanoes: Year Eleven Teaching Resource Unit.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le Heron, Kiri; Andrews, Jill; Hooks, Stacey; Larnder, Michele; Le Heron, Richard

    2000-01-01

    Presents a unit on volcanoes and experiences with volcanoes that helps students develop geography skills. Focuses on four volcanoes: (1) Rangitoto Island; (2) Lake Pupuke; (3) Mount Smart; and (4) One Tree Hill. Includes an answer sheet and resources to use with the unit. (CMK)

  18. Living Well? Strategies Used by Women Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lewis, Sophie; Willis, Karen; Yee, Jasmine; Kilbreath, Sharon

    2016-07-01

    Metastatic breast cancer is a disease of changing status-once an imminent death sentence, now a chronic (albeit incurable) disease. Medical intervention advances mean women with metastatic breast cancer now have symptoms alleviated and, potentially, life extended. Living with this disease, however, requires more than a medical approach to symptoms. We were interested to know whether women manage, and if so, how, to "live well" with metastatic cancer. We conducted interviews with 18 women. Women differed in the approaches they used. Most common was the attempt to reestablish a sense of normality in their lives. However, a second group reevaluated and reprioritized their lives; and a third group was restricted in their capacity to live well because of symptoms. The findings provide the foundation for future research exploring normalization of experiences of metastatic cancer, and other chronic illnesses, where people are living with knowledge that they have contracted time. © The Author(s) 2015.

  19. Management of Common Resources and Reciprocity: the contributions of Elinor Ostrom to the Debate Manejo dos Recursos Comuns e Reciprocidade: os Aportes de Elinor Ostrom ao Debate

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Eric Sabourin

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper analyzes the importance of reciprocity in the processes and procedures recorded in the management of common resources. It examines first the role that E. Ostrom attributes to the norm of reciprocity in her approach to common property resources. A second part interprets economic and social relations in the management of common resources as seen by economic anthropology’s theory of reciprocity. Finally, the conclusion attempts to establish a dialogue between Ostrom’s proposals and the theory of reciprocity.O artigo analisa a importância da reciprocidade nos processos e dispositivos de manejo de recursos comuns. Primeiro, examina o papel que Ostrom atribui à norma de reciprocidade na sua abordagem da gestão dos recursos em propriedade comum. Uma segunda parte apresenta a leitura das relações econômicas e sociais no manejo de recursos comuns pela ótica da teoria da reciprocidade da antropologia econômica. Finalmente, a conclusão apresenta um início de diálogo entre as propostas de Ostrom e a teoria da reciprocidade.

  20. Group Therapy for Adolescents Living With an Eating Disorder

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica Downey

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Group models are commonly used to treat eating disorders; however, research in this area remains largely underdeveloped. Interest in group work is likely to increase due to the demands on the public health system and the cost-effectiveness of group modalities. This scoping review sought to explore the evidence underpinning group therapy for adolescents living with an eating disorder. A literature search of 10 academic databases and four gray literature databases was undertaken in 2013. Selected Internet resources were searched and the author consulted professionals from Eating Disorders Victoria, the Butterfly Foundation, and the University of Melbourne. A total of 11 peer-reviewed articles published between 2003 and 2013 were included for review. There was an overall lack of research with no randomized-controlled trials available. Six program evaluations and five program descriptions were found, and they reported on a range of eating disorders and group modalities. The program evaluations suggested the utility of group therapy for promoting weight restoration in underweight individuals living with an eating disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy groups were found to be more effective for bulimia nervosa and multifamily group therapy showed promise for anorexia nervosa. More rigorous research is needed to establish the effectiveness of group therapy for adolescents living with an eating disorder.

  1. An openstack-based flexible video transcoding framework in live

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Qisen; Song, Jianxin

    2017-08-01

    With the rapid development of mobile live business, transcoding HD video is often a challenge for mobile devices due to their limited processing capability and bandwidth-constrained network connection. For live service providers, it's wasteful for resources to delay lots of transcoding server because some of them are free to work sometimes. To deal with this issue, this paper proposed an Openstack-based flexible transcoding framework to achieve real-time video adaption for mobile device and make computing resources used efficiently. To this end, we introduced a special method of video stream splitting and VMs resource scheduling based on access pressure prediction,which is forecasted by an AR model.

  2. The Living Challenges of Ambient Assisted Living - A Literature Review

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bygholm, Ann; Kanstrup, Anne Marie

    2015-01-01

    Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) is a rapidly evolving research and development area propelled by scarcity of health resources caused by an aging workforce and increase of Citizens in need of health care and health assistance on a regular basis. This paper presents a literature review of the current...... state-of-the-art of AAL. The objective is to point towards methodological actions to be taken into account in AAL research on this basis. Searches were conducted in five research databases. The search identified 86 papers. 10 of these papers were review papers chosen for analysis. The analysis presents...... an overview of the current status of AAL within the following categories: technology, users, application domains, rationales, successes and challenges of AAL. The paper concludes that the living part, i.e. the everyday practice of people living with Assistive Technology, is the primary challenge to the field...

  3. ``Living off the land'': resource efficiency of wetland wastewater treatment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nelson, M.; Odum, H. T.; Brown, M. T.; Alling, A.

    Bioregenerative life support technologies for space application are advantageous if they can be constructed using locally available materials, and rely on renewable energy resources, lessening the need for launch and resupply of materials. These same characteristics are desirable in the global Earth environment because such technologies are more affordable by developing countries, and are more sustainable long-term since they utilize less non-renewable, imported resources. Subsurface flow wetlands (wastewater gardens™) were developed and evaluated for wastewater recycling along the coast of Yucatan. Emergy evaluations, a measure of the environmental and human economic resource utilization, showed that compared to conventional sewage treatment, wetland wastewater treatment systems use far less imported and purchased materials. Wetland systems are also less energy-dependent, lessening dependence on electrical infrastructure, and require simpler maintenance since the system largely relies on the ecological action of microbes and plants for their efficacy. Detailed emergy evaluations showed that wetland systems use only about 15% the purchased emergy of conventional sewage systems, and that renewable resources contribute 60% of total emergy used (excluding the sewage itself) compared to less than 1% use of renewable resources in the high-tech systems. Applied on a larger scale for development in third world countries, wetland systems would require 1/5 the electrical energy of conventional sewage treatment (package plants), and save 2/3 of total capital and operating expenses over a 20-year timeframe. In addition, there are numerous secondary benefits from wetland systems including fiber/fodder/food from the wetland plants, creation of ecosystems of high biodiversity with animal habitat value, and aesthestic/landscape enhancement of the community. Wetland wastewater treatment is an exemplar of ecological engineering in that it creates an interface ecosystem to handle

  4. Influence of three common calibration metrics on the diagnosis of climate change impacts on water resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seiller, G.; Roy, R.; Anctil, F.

    2017-04-01

    Uncertainties associated to the evaluation of the impacts of climate change on water resources are broad, from multiple sources, and lead to diagnoses sometimes difficult to interpret. Quantification of these uncertainties is a key element to yield confidence in the analyses and to provide water managers with valuable information. This work specifically evaluates the influence of hydrological modeling calibration metrics on future water resources projections, on thirty-seven watersheds in the Province of Québec, Canada. Twelve lumped hydrologic models, representing a wide range of operational options, are calibrated with three common objective functions derived from the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency. The hydrologic models are forced with climate simulations corresponding to two RCP, twenty-nine GCM from CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5) and two post-treatment techniques, leading to future projections in the 2041-2070 period. Results show that the diagnosis of the impacts of climate change on water resources are quite affected by the hydrologic models selection and calibration metrics. Indeed, for the four selected hydrological indicators, dedicated to water management, parameters from the three objective functions can provide different interpretations in terms of absolute and relative changes, as well as projected changes direction and climatic ensemble consensus. The GR4J model and a multimodel approach offer the best modeling options, based on calibration performance and robustness. Overall, these results illustrate the need to provide water managers with detailed information on relative changes analysis, but also absolute change values, especially for hydrological indicators acting as security policy thresholds.

  5. Water - an inexhaustible resource?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Le Divenah, C.; Esperou, E.

    2012-04-01

    We have chosen to present the topic "Water", by illustrating problems that will give better opportunities for interdisciplinary work between Natural Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology) teachers at first, but also English teachers and maybe others. Water is considered in general, in all its shapes and states. The question is not only about drinking water, but we would like to demonstrate that water can both be a fragile and short-lived resource in some ways, and an unlimited energy resource in others. Water exists on Earth in three states. It participates in a large number of chemical and physical processes (dissolution, dilution, biogeochemical cycles, repartition of heat in the oceans and the atmosphere, etc.), helping to maintain the homeostasis of the entire planet. It is linked to living beings, for which water is the major compound. The living beings essentially organized themselves into or around water, and this fact is also valid for human kind (energy, drinking, trade…). Water can also be a destroying agent for living beings (tsunamis, mud flows, collapse of electrical dams, pollution...) and for the solid earth (erosion, dissolution, fusion). I) Water, an essential resource for the human kind After having highlighted the disparities and geopolitical problems, the pupils will study the chemistry of water with its components and their origins (isotopes, water trip). Then the ways to make it drinkable will be presented (filtration, decantation, iceberg carrying…) II) From the origin of water... We could manage an activity where different groups put several hypotheses to the test, with the goal to understand the origin(s?) of water on Earth. Example: Isotopic signature of water showing its extraterrestrial origin.. Once done, we'll try to determine the origin of drinking water, as a fossil resource. Another use of isotopes will allow them to evaluate the drinking water age, to realize how precious it can be. III) Water as a sustainable energy

  6. The association of domestic violence and social resources with functioning in an adult trauma-affected sample living in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Jeremy C.; Hall, Brian J.; Bolton, Paul; Murray, Laura K.; Ahmed, Ahmed Mohammed Amin; Bass, Judith K.

    2016-01-01

    Ability to function in tasks and activities is an important aspect of daily living. There are factors that increase the risk for impaired functioning, such as experiences of domestic violence (DV) and other trauma types, and factors that provide a buffer to existing risks and allow the individual to continue and build functioning, such as access to social resources. This cross-sectional study investigated the direct effects of DV and access to social resources (perceived social support, social integration, and frequency of social contact), as well as their potential interactive effects, on daily functioning among 894 male and female trauma survivors who attended primary care clinics in Kurdistan, Iraq in 2009 and 2010. Experiencing DV was not associated with functioning for males (p=.15) or females (p=.60), suggesting that in the context of a trauma-affected sample, the experience of DV may not significantly increase the risk for functional impairment. Greater amounts of social integration were associated with less functional impairment among males (p<.01) and females (p<.05); social integration was associated with less functional impairment among males only (p<.01); and frequency of social contact was associated with less functional impairment among females only (p<.05), indicating that the association between social resource type and functioning differed by gender. Standardized beta coefficients indicated that social resources had a stronger effect on functioning among men compared to women. Among males who experienced DV, social integration was the only social resource associated with less functional impairment (p<.01); among male trauma survivors who did not experience DV, social support was the only resource associated with less functional impairment (p<.01). Further investigation into the association of social resources with functioning and how these differ by gender and DV exposure is warranted to inform intervention strategies for survivors of DV and other

  7. Polution of basic natural resources with hazardous matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pejanović Ljubo

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper analyzes conceptual guidelines and a multidimensional approach to the thematic of agriculture as a land property with rich and available natural resources, which are characterized by their specifics. Specifics of natural resources are characterized by renewable and non-renewable contents without which life is impossible, and these basic contents are land, air and water. In addition, agrarians and agriculture have natural riches in their possession, out of which food for living creatures on the planet is produced. Natural resources are the contents of agrarians and with every pollution, and thus destruction of natural resources, it damages and destroys sustainability of both natural resources and the sustainability of agriculture with its content of living creatures and plants on which life and survival on this planet depend on. Any pollution, especially from hazardous substances and excessive treatment from the air and ground, causes damage, destruction and loss of life which is contained by living creatures and plant life, a prerequisite for sustainable development and the survival on Earth. The problem and aim of this paper is to point out and prove a phenomenon of the modern world, which poses a threat to the survival of natural resources, and thus life to living things and plant life on Earth. However, the aforementioned phenomenon is not a much known one, it's only known to a shortlist of scientists and theoreticians, while the general public is not aware of the mentioned and doesn't even assume the consequences of the threat.

  8. A critical survey of live virtual machine migration techniques

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anita Choudhary

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Virtualization techniques effectively handle the growing demand for computing, storage, and communication resources in large-scale Cloud Data Centers (CDC. It helps to achieve different resource management objectives like load balancing, online system maintenance, proactive fault tolerance, power management, and resource sharing through Virtual Machine (VM migration. VM migration is a resource-intensive procedure as VM’s continuously demand appropriate CPU cycles, cache memory, memory capacity, and communication bandwidth. Therefore, this process degrades the performance of running applications and adversely affects efficiency of the data centers, particularly when Service Level Agreements (SLA and critical business objectives are to be met. Live VM migration is frequently used because it allows the availability of application service, while migration is performed. In this paper, we make an exhaustive survey of the literature on live VM migration and analyze the various proposed mechanisms. We first classify the types of Live VM migration (single, multiple and hybrid. Next, we categorize VM migration techniques based on duplication mechanisms (replication, de-duplication, redundancy, and compression and awareness of context (dependency, soft page, dirty page, and page fault and evaluate the various Live VM migration techniques. We discuss various performance metrics like application service downtime, total migration time and amount of data transferred. CPU, memory and storage data is transferred during the process of VM migration and we identify the category of data that needs to be transferred in each case. We present a brief discussion on security threats in live VM migration and categories them in three different classes (control plane, data plane, and migration module. We also explain the security requirements and existing solutions to mitigate possible attacks. Specific gaps are identified and the research challenges in improving

  9. Complete recovery of renal allograft function after six days of delay following living related transplantation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arogundade, F.A.; Sanusi, A.A.; Badmus, T.A.

    2008-01-01

    Delayed graft function (DGF), a term employed when a newly transplanted organ does not function efficiently is commonly observed following cadaveric renal transplantation but is very rare after living related transplants. We present a 31-year-old female recipient of a related donor kidney (mother) who had DGF following transplantation due to acute tubular necrosis, probably caused by partial allograft arterial thrombosis, which recovered function after 60 days. Appropriate use of allograft biopsy should be encouraged even in resource-limited settings lest the allograft be assumed to have failed irreversibly. (author)

  10. Life story resources in dementia care: a review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kindell, Jacqueline; Burrow, Simon; Wilkinson, Ray; Keady, John David

    2014-01-01

    Life story work has a relatively long tradition in the caring sciences and is recognised as an important component of dementia care and practice. However, to date, there has not been a review of accessible life story resources. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Following a systematic approach to identification and inclusion, 11 life story resources were reviewed to ascertain areas of commonality and divergence between the materials. The authors were able to group the analysis under eight areas and at the end of this process, it was uncertain if life story work is a formal staff intervention or an informal activity that people with dementia and their families could engage in. Resources also varied in terms of whether the life story information was organised in a chronological way, or with topics of interest/discussion or with a combination of both. Life story evaluation and its impact on the life of the person with dementia is in need of development. Across the resources the authors identified four reasons to do life story work which the authors have named as: emotional connections; interactional connections; building new connections and practical care connections. There was limited guidance aimed at helping people with dementia to develop and compile their own life story. This paper provides new insights into the usefulness, future directions and content of life story resources in dementia care. It will be of interest to those in health and social care as well as people living with dementia.

  11. An alternative policy evaluation of the British Columbia carbon tax: broadening the application of Elinor Ostrom's design principles for managing common-pool resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karine Lacroix

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Climate change is putting infrastructure, food supply, water resources, ecosystems, and human health at risk. These risks will be exacerbated depending on the degree of additional greenhouse gas emissions. Urgent action is needed to limit the severity of impacts associated with further warming. British Columbia (BC has taken action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from carbon-based fuels by introducing a carbon tax in 2008. As an innovative approach to climate change mitigation, especially in North America, studies evaluating its effectiveness are valuable. We assessed the long-term viability potential of the BC carbon tax using common pool resource design principles, a novel application of the design principles to environmental policy. We found that the design principles can be applied productively to environmental policy and larger scale air pollution problems. With regard to the BC carbon tax, our findings suggest that closer monitoring of user behavior, further increases of the tax over time, and pursuing efforts for a more elaborate system of nested enterprises and interjurisdictional cooperation could increase the long-term success of the BC carbon tax. We also found that the design principles allowed us to more comprehensively reach conclusions regarding the broader effectiveness of the tax when compared to existing policy analysis. Traditionally, climate policy evaluation has focused on the end goal without considering broader constraints and issues of resource allocation. We suggest that common pool resource theory, which is based on strong theoretical principles and encourages reflexivity, will be able to address those limitations.

  12. View Points of an Ecologist on Practical Environmental Ethic: Socioecology, Common-Pool Resources and Conservation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Castilla, Juan Carlos

    2016-01-01

    The paper centers on environmental practical ethic point of views according to a professional ecologist. Ecology and the science of Socio-ecology are defined. The framework of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment initiative (MA 2003), including the use of ecosystems as the environmental unit of analysis, ecosystem services and human well-being as the center for assessment are discussed. Common-pool resources (CPR) and the allegory of the tragedy of the commons are used to illustrate main scientific and ethical environmental approaches, and above all to highlight the case of climate change, considering ″air-atmosphere″ as a CPR. The need to adopt practical personal environmental ethical positions is highlighted. Furthermore, on climate change, a discussion on the need to develop environmental and socio-ecological polycentric approaches: top-down and bottom-up, is included. An updated discussion on the concept of conservation, including main scientific and ethic points of view, is presented. Pope Francis's Encyclical, Laudato Si', is used to highlight environmental, socio-ecological and ethical aspects behind the comprehensive concept of Integral Ecology. The paper ends with a short synthesis on Earth modern unseen and astonishing environmental and socio-ecological rates of changes, and identifying the main barriers for personal environmental engagement. A call is done regarding the urgent need for socio-environmental ethic personal engagement and collective actions.

  13. Uncommon among the Commons? Disentangling the Sustainability of the Peruvian Anchovy Fishery

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milena Arias Schreiber

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available The term "commons" refers to collectively exploited resources and their systems of usage; a synonymous term is common pool resources. Fisheries are typical common pool resources and also one of the most conspicuous examples of unsustainable use of natural resources. We examine one of the few globally important fisheries that is held to be sustainable, the Peruvian anchovy fishery, and considers the extent to which the institutional characteristics of the fishery conform to design principles that are considered prerequisites for long-term, successful, community-based common pool resources. Results showed that greater conformity to the principles was found in the sustainable phase of the fishery, compared to its unsustainable phase. For this case study, the conditions that supported the transition towards sustainability were: clearly defined resource boundaries, monitoring of rule enforcement, and conflict resolution mechanisms among users and management authorities. On the other hand, clearly defined user boundaries, collective choice arrangements, and nested enterprises were not required to achieve sustainability. The study concludes that the design principles are a valuable tool for analysis and understanding of large-scale common pool resource systems. At the same time it suggests that the application of the principles to a wider range of systems can generate new insights into what is required for successful management of common pool resources.

  14. Investigating the Marine Environment and Its Resources, Part II.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lien, Violetta F.

    This is the second of two volumes comprising a resource unit designed to help students become more knowledgeable about the marine environment and its resources. Included in this volume are discussions of changes in the human and marine environment, human needs, marine resources, living marine resources, marine transportation, marine energy…

  15. Culture fishery resources of the tropical marine ecosystems

    Digital Repository Service at National Institute of Oceanography (India)

    Parulekar, A.H.

    The exploited marine living resources, through capture fisheries, have their own limitations of resource potential, marine pollution and ever increasing operational cost. A plausible way to fulfil the increasing demand of seafood is through...

  16. Uranium market and resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capus, G.; Arnold, T.

    2005-01-01

    Under the combined effect of various factors, such as interrogations related to facing the climatic changes, the increasing prices of oil versus announced decrease of its resources, the major geopolitical evolution and the remarkable development of Asia, we live nowadays a revival of nuclear power in the very front of stage. In tis context, the following question is posed: could the nuclear fission be a sustainable source of energy when taking into consideration the availability of uranium resources? The article aims at pinpointing the knowledge we have about the world uranium resources, their limits of uncertainty and the relation between knowledge resources and market evolution. To conclude, some susceptible tracks are proposed to improve the using process of uranium resources particularly in softening the impact of high prices

  17. Guide to North Dakota's ground-water resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulson, Q.F.

    1983-01-01

    Ground water, the water we pump from the Earth through wells or that which flows naturally from springs, is one of North Dakota's most valuable resources. More than 60 percent of the people living in the State use ground water for one purpose of another. It is the only source of water for thousands of farm families and their livestock. Almost all smaller cities and villages depend solely on groudn water as a source of supply. Increasingly, ground water is being used to irrigate crops and grasslands (fig. 1) during protracted dry spells so common in North Dakota. During recent years there has been a rapid development of rural water ditribution systems in which thousands of farms and rurals residences are connected via underground pipeline to a single water source, usually wells pumping ground water.

  18. Extravagance in the commons: Resource exploitation and the frontiers of ecosystem service depletion in the Amazon estuary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Araujo Barbosa, Caio C; Atkinson, Peter M; Dearing, John A

    2016-04-15

    Estuaries hold major economic potential due their strategic location, close to seas and inland waterways, thereby supporting intense economic activity. The increasing pace of human development in coastal deltas over the past five decades has also strained local resources and produced extensive changes across both social and ecological systems. The Amazon estuary is located in the Amazon Basin, North Brazil, the largest river basin on Earth and also one of the least understood. A considerable segment of the population living in the estuary is directly dependent on the local extraction of natural resources for their livelihood. Areas sparsely inhabited may be exploited with few negative consequences for the environment. However, recent and increasing pressure on ecosystem services is maximised by a combination of factors such as governance, currency exchange rates, exports of beef and forest products. Here we present a cross methodological approach in identifying the political frontiers of forest cover change in the estuary with consequences for ecosystem services loss. We used a combination of data from earth observation satellites, ecosystem service literature, and official government statistics to produce spatially-explicit relationships linking the Green Vegetation Cover to the availability of ecosystems provided by forests in the estuary. Our results show that the continuous changes in land use/cover and in the economic state have contributed significantly to changes in key ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, climate regulation, and the availability of timber over the last thirty years. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Dimensions of Poverty and Health Outcomes Among People Living with HIV Infection: Limited Resources and Competing Needs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalichman, Seth C; Hernandez, Dominica; Kegler, Christopher; Cherry, Chauncey; Kalichman, Moira O; Grebler, Tamar

    2015-08-01

    HIV infection is concentrated in populations living in poverty. We examined the overlapping and independent effects of multiple poverty indicators on HIV-related health status. Because substance use can create competing survival needs when resources are limited, we also sought to objectively measure expenditures on food relative to alcohol and tobacco products. To achieve these aims, 459 men and 212 women living with HIV infection in Atlanta, GA completed measures of socio-demographic and heath characteristics as well as multiple indicators of poverty including housing stability, transportation, food insecurity, and substance use. Participants were given a $30 grocery gift card for their participation and we collected receipts which were coded for alcohol (beer, wine, liquors) and tobacco purchases. Results showed that participants with unsuppressed HIV replication were significantly more likely to experience multiple indicators of poverty. In addition, one in four participants purchased alcohol or tobacco products with their gift cards, with as much as one-fourth of money spent on these products. A multivariable logistic regression model showed that food insecurity was independently associated with unsuppressed HIV, and purchasing alcohol or tobacco products did not moderate this association. Results confirm previous research to show the primacy of food insecurity in relation to HIV-related health outcomes. Competing survival needs, including addictive substances, should be addressed in programs that aim to alleviate poverty to enhance the health and well-being of people with HIV infection.

  20. Assessing potential for community-based management of peccaries through common pool resource theory in the rural area of the Argentine Chaco.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altrichter, Mariana

    2008-03-01

    Community-based management (CBM) has been recognized as an appropriate approach to conservation, assuming that local communities have higher stakes than the state in their natural resources and have better knowledge of local resources and, therefore, can manage them more efficiently. However, the implementation of CBM has not always been successful. The objective of this research was to assess the potential for the implementation of a governmental proposal for community-based management of peccaries (Tayassuidae) in the Impenetrable northern Argentine, through the examination of the reasons why arrangements to avoid overexploitation have not evolved in this region. I used the theory of common pool resources (CPRs) as a framework for this analysis. CPRs theory explains the conditions under which appropriators of a resource are likely to engage in devising and altering governing arrangements and the conditions under which such arrangements are likely to succeed. Fieldwork was conducted between June 2000 and August 2003 using a mixed methods approach. It was found that most of the condition of the resource and users identified by the CPR theory as associated with an increased likelihood of successful management of natural resources are absent or scarcely developed in the Impenetrable. Thus, the situation in the Impenetrable does not seem appropriate for the implementation of CBM of peccaries. It is first necessary to invest in training and development of local institutions' capacities and social capital. It is also important to increase the flow of relevant information, which will enable institutions to be effective, responsible, and accountable to the community. For the moment, a more appropriate approach will have to include a mixture of protectionism and comanagement of collared peccaries while the propitious conditions for a complete local management of the resource are developed.

  1. How innovation commons contribute to discovering and developing new technologies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Darcy W.E. Allen

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available In modern economics, the institutions surrounding the creation and development of new technologies are firms, markets and governments. We propose an alternative theory that locates the institutional origin of new technologies further back in the commons when self-organizing groups of technology enthusiasts develop effective governance rules to pool distributed information resources. The ‘innovation commons’ alleviates uncertainty around a nascent technology by pooling distributed information about uses, costs, problems and opportunities. While innovation commons are mostly temporary, because the resource itself – the information about opportunities – is only temporarily valuable, they are a further addition to the Pantheon of commons, and suggest that the institutions of the commons – and the common pool resource of information about applications of the technology – may be far more important in the study of innovation than previously thought.

  2. Stress associated with group living in a long-lived bird.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Selva, Nuria; Cortés-Avizanda, Ainara; Lemus, Jesús A; Blanco, Guillermo; Mueller, Thomas; Heinrich, Bernd; Donázar, José A

    2011-08-23

    Many long-lived avian species adopt life strategies that involve a gregarious way of life at juvenile and sub-adult stages and territoriality during adulthood. However, the potential associated costs of these life styles, such as stress, are poorly understood. We examined the effects of group living, sex and parasite load on the baseline concentration of faecal stress hormone (corticosterone) metabolites in a wild population of common ravens (Corvus corax). Corticosterone concentrations were significantly higher in non-breeding gregarious ravens than in territorial adults. Among territorial birds, males showed higher stress levels than their mates. Parasite burdens did not affect hormone levels. Our results suggest a key role of the social context in the stress profiles of the two population fractions, and that group living may be more energetically demanding than maintaining a territory. These findings have implications for understanding hormonal mechanisms under different life styles and may inspire further research on the link between hormone levels and selective pressures modulating gregarious and territorial strategies in long-lived birds. This journal is © 2011 The Royal Society

  3. Living (in) Class: Contexts of Immigrant Lives and the Movements of Children with(in) Them

    Science.gov (United States)

    Theodorou, Eleni

    2011-01-01

    This article explores the ways in which immigrant children in Cyprus negotiated and perceived their class positions amidst the transnational activities of their parents. As findings indicate, children develop acute understandings of the impact money has on their lives. Drawing on resources physically or imaginarily available to them, children…

  4. Content Integration: Creating a Scalable Common Platform for Information Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berenstein, Max; Katz, Demian

    2012-01-01

    Academic, government, and corporate librarians organize and leverage internal resources and content through institutional repositories and library catalogs. Getting more value and usage from the content they license is a key goal. However, the ever-growing amount of content and shifting user demands for new materials or features has made the…

  5. Life Online: Resources for Students with an Intellectual Disability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weeks, Kerri

    2001-01-01

    Two Australian agencies planned, developed, piloted, and evaluated an online resource for teaching independent living skills to adult students with a mild intellectual disability using technology and the Internet. The resource, called Life Online, is a package of support resource materials tested in regional classrooms in Victoria, Australia.…

  6. Healthcare resource use, comorbidity, treatment and clinical outcomes for patients with primary intracranial tumors: a Swedish population-based register study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bergqvist, Jenny; Iderberg, Hanna; Mesterton, Johan; Bengtsson, Nils; Wettermark, Björn; Henriksson, Roger

    2017-03-01

    Primary intracranial tumors are relatively uncommon and heterogeneous, which make them challenging to study. We coupled data from unique Swedish population-based registries in order to deeper analyze the most common intracranical tumor types. Patient characteristics (e.g. comorbidities), care process measures like adherence to national guidelines, healthcare resource use and clinical outcome was evaluated. A register-based study including several population-based registries for all patients living in Stockholm-Gotland, diagnosed with primary intracranial tumor between 2001 and 2013 was performed. Patient characteristics were captured and investigated in relation to survival, healthcare resource use (inpatient-, outpatient- and primary care) and treatment process. High-grade glioma and meningioma were the most common tumor types and most patients (76%) were above the age of 40 in the patient population (n = 3664). Older age, comorbidity (Elixhauser comorbidity index) and type of tumor (high-grade glioma) were associated with lower survival rate and increased use of healthcare resources, analyzed for patients living in Stockholm (n = 3031). The analyses of healthcare use and survival showed no differences between males and females, when stratifying by tumor types. Healthcare processes were not always consistent with existing national treatment recommendations for patients with high-grade gliomas (n = 474) with regard to specified lead times, analyzed in the Swedish Brain Tumor Registry, as also observed at the national level. Age, comorbidity and high-grade gliomas, but not sex, were associated with decreased survival and increased use of healthcare resources. Fewer patients than aimed for in national guidelines received care according to specified lead times. The analysis of comprehensive population-based register data can be used to improve future care processes and outcomes.

  7. Reformulating the commons

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ostrom Elinor

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available The western hemisphere is richly endowed with a diversity of natural resource systems that are governed by complex local and national institutional arrangements that have not, until recently, been well understood. While many local communities that possess a high degree of autonomy to govern local resources have been highly successful over long periods of time, others fail to take action to prevent overuse and degradation of forests, inshore fisheries, and other natural resources. The conventional theory used to predict and explain how local users will relate to resources that they share makes a uniform prediction that users themselves will be unable to extricate themselves from the tragedy of the commons. Using this theoretical view of the world, there is no variance in the performance of self-organized groups. In theory, there are no self-organized groups. Empirical evidence tells us, however, that considerable variance in performance exists and many more local users self-organize and are more successful than it is consistent with the conventional theory . Parts of a new theory are presented here.

  8. A "Common" Vision of Instruction? An Analysis of English/Language Arts Professional Development Materials Related to the Common Core State Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hodge, Emily; Benko, Susanna L.

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe the stances put forward by a selection of professional development resources interpreting the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) teachers, and to analyse where these resources stand in relation to research in ELA. Specifically, we analyse resources written by English educators…

  9. Open Data as a New Commons

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Morelli, Nicola; Mulder, Ingrid; Concilio, Grazia

    2017-01-01

    and environmental opportunities around them and government choices. Developing spacesmeans for enabling citizens to harness the opportunities coming from the use of this new resource, offers thus a substantial promise of social innovation. This means that open data is vi (still) virtually a new resource that could...... become a new commons with the engagement of interested and active communities. The condition for open data becoming a new common is that citizens become aware of the potential of this resource, that they use it for creating new services and that new practices and infrastructures are defined, that would......An increasing computing capability is raising the opportunities to use a large amount of publicly available data for creating new applications and a new generation of public services. But while it is easy to find some early examples of services concerning control systems (e.g. traffic, meteo...

  10. Live cell imaging reveals different modes of cytotoxic action of extracts derived from commonly used luting cements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trumpaitė-Vanagienė, Rita; Čebatariūnienė, Alina; Tunaitis, Virginijus; Pūrienė, Alina; Pivoriūnas, Augustas

    2018-02-01

    To compare cytotoxicity of extracts derived from commonly used luting cements: Hoffmann's Zinc Phosphate (ZPC), GC Fuji Plus Resin Modified Glass Ionomer (RMGIC) and 3M ESPE RelyX Unicem Resin Cement (RC) on primary human gingival fibroblasts (HGFs). HGFs were exposed to different concentrations of the ZPC, RMGIC and RC extracts. The cytotoxicity was assessed with the PrestoBlue Cell Viability Reagent and viable cells were counted by a haemocytometer using the trypan blue exclusion test. In order to determine the primary mechanism of the cell death induced by extracts from different luting cements, the real-time monitoring of caspase-3/-7 activity and membrane integrity of cells was employed. The extracts from the RMGIC and ZPC decreased the metabolic activity and numbers of viable cells. Unexpectedly, the extracts from the RC evoked only small effects on the metabolic activity of HGFs with a decreasing number of viable cells in a dose-and time-dependent manner. The live cell imaging revealed that the apoptosis was the primary mechanism of a cell death induced by the extracts derived from the RMGIC, whereas the extracts from the RC and ZPC induced a cell death through a necrotic and caspase-independent pathway. The apoptosis was the primary mechanism of the cell death induced by the extracts derived from the RMGIC, whereas the extracts from the RC and ZPC induced a cell death via a necrotic pathway. We suggest that metabolic assays commonly used to assess the cytotoxicity of luting cements should be validated by alternative methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Resilience among asylum seekers living with HIV

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Orton Lois

    2012-10-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background A small body of evidence demonstrates the challenges faced by migrant communities living with HIV but has yet to consider in-depth the experience of asylum seekers whose residency status is undetermined. The overall aim of our study was to explore the experiences of those who are both living with HIV and seeking asylum. This paper focuses on the stressors precipitated by the HIV diagnosis and by going through the asylum system; as well as participants’ resilience in responding to these stressors and the consequences for their health and wellbeing. Methods We conducted an ethnographic study. Fieldwork took place in the UK between 2008–2009 and included: 350 hours of observation at voluntary services providing support to black and minority ethnic groups living with HIV; 29 interviews and four focus group discussions with those who were seeking asylum and living with HIV; and 15 interviews with their health and social care providers. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method. Results There were three main stressors that threatened participants’ resilience. First, migration caused them to leave behind many resources (including social support. Second, stigmatising attitudes led their HIV diagnosis to be a taboo subject furthering their isolation. Third, they found themselves trapped in the asylum system, unable to influence the outcome of their case and reliant on HIV treatment to stay alive. Participants were, however, very resourceful in dealing with these experiences. Resilience processes included: staying busy, drawing on personal faith, and the support received through HIV care providers and voluntary organisations. Even so, their isolated existence meant participants had limited access to social resources, and their treatment in the asylum system had a profound impact on perceived health and wellbeing. Conclusions Asylum seekers living with HIV in the UK show immense resilience. However, their isolation

  12. Understanding Access to Things: A Knowledge Commons Perspective

    OpenAIRE

    Madison, Michael

    2017-01-01

    This chapter explores the related ideas of access to knowledge resources and shared governance of those resources, often known as commons. Knowledge resources consist of many types and forms. Some are tangible, and some are intangible. Some are singular; some are reproduced in copies. Some are singular or unique; some are collected or pooled. Some are viewed, used, or consumed only by a single person; for some resources, collective or social consumption is the norm. Any given resource often h...

  13. Living lab: Format for rehearsing a new (service) practice

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yndigegn, Signe; Aakjær, Marie Kirstejn

    Citizen engagement and the citizens as a resource are key concepts in rethinking the Danish welfare system to meet the challenges of delivering better services for the elderly, while simultaneously reducing the cost of healthcare. In this method paper, we address how the co-design of new digital...... service platforms takes place in the format of living labs. We characterize living labs as the design of experiential spaces where ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ are explored over a longer period of engagement. The labs are staged to integrate multiple stakeholders’ issues and resources and to create new...... technologies, concepts, or service designs. This paper unpacks the practices of living labs with questions of what is being produced, not only in terms of products, but also in terms of changes in practices, roles, and relations. To analyze and discuss this question the authors report about their engagement...

  14. Resources of the Civilians Living in the Area of the Armed Conflict in the Context of Personality Transformations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ryadinskaya E.N.

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The article presents the data of an empirical study of the features of the adaptation resources of the population living under the conditions of the armed conflict. The study involved 723 people of both genders living in the immediate area of the armed conflict, their age ranging from 17 to 75 years old. It is empirically shown that the respondents of the first group (areas of low-intensity shelling are generally characterized by high activity, cheerfulness, calmness, healthy optimism, they are active and satisfied with life; these indicators are more pronounced in women aged 19-35 years. It is established that in the first group almost half of the respondents show a high level of neuropsychic resistance; a higher level of it being observed in men. It has been determined that the respondents of the second group (areas of intensive shelling are characterized by displays of irritability, anxiety, and also depression, despair. They are characterized by fast fatigue, low working capacity, lethargy, reduced energy potential and emotional stability, moral normalization. This group of people shows an average neuropsychic resistance, there are signs of stress and mental disadaptation (mainly in women aged 35-60 and older, they are less satisfied with life on the whole than the respondents of the first group, and they also give a lower estimate of their personal success. Most pronounced these indicators were in women 19-35 years old and in men 35-60 years old. It is also established that the subjects of both groups reveal a high level of personal adaptation potential, as evidenced by their rapid adaptation to the new reality conditions. The most adaptive in the first and second groups are young people aged 17-19, and also women aged 19-35. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: long-term residence in the area of the armed conflict, especially in the areas of intense shelling, significantly affects the adaptation capacity of a person

  15. Planetary Volatiles Extractor for In Situ Resource Utilization, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) or ?living off the land relies on exploiting local resources and in turn reducing burden of transporting supplies. NASA has...

  16. Renewable material resource potential

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Weenen, H.; Wever, R.; Quist, J.; Tukker, A.; Woudstra, J.; Boons, F.A.A.; Beute, N.

    2010-01-01

    Renewable material resources, consist of complex systems and parts. Their sub-systems and sub-sub-systems, have unique, specific, general and common properties. The character of the use that is made of these resources, depends on the availability of knowledge, experience, methods, tools, machines

  17. Resources scarcity: Cause of potential conflicts

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beriša Hatidža A.

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Natural resources are a common good and the common wealth of each country. Their use, commercial applications and economic evaluation should be planned focused and targeted controlled. In a group of natural resources include: energy resources, water, food, land, mineral resources, biological resources and others. Given that the conditions of resource exploitation variable categories, it can be said that the volume of resources also variable. Abstracting growing problem of resources scarcity of vital importance to the existence in the world, this paper aims to try to shed light on the wider and comprehensive aspects of contemporary global problems in the scarcity of natural resources with a focus on the deficit of food, water and energenata. Search for answers to questions related to the scarcity of the basic needs of some of the world's population, civilizational confrontation about the energy pie, is a research and empirical contribution to the work, which is reflected in the effort to look at global challenges that mankind faces in the second decade of the 21st century.

  18. Perceived barriers to the implementation of Isoniazid preventive therapy for people living with HIV in resource constrained settings: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mindachew, Mesele; Deribew, Amare; Memiah, Peter; Biadgilign, Sibhatu

    2014-01-01

    Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) reduces the risk of active TB. IPT is a key public health intervention for the prevention of TB among people living with HIV and has been recommended as part of a comprehensive HIV and AIDS care strategy. However, its implementation has been very slow and has been impeded by several barriers. The Objective of the study is to assess the perceived barriers to the implementation of Isoniazid preventive therapy for people living with HIV in resource constrained settings in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2010. A qualitative study using a semi-structured interviewed guide was used for the in-depth interview. A total of 12 key informants including ART Nurse, counselors and coordinators found in four hospitals were included in the interview. Each session of the in-depth interview was recorded via audio tape and detailed notes. The interview was transcribed verbatim. The data was analyzed manually. The findings revealed that poor patient adherence was a major factor; with the following issues cited as the reasons for poor adherence; forgetfulness; lack of understanding of condition and patient non- disclosure of HIV sero-status leading to insubstantial social support; underlying mental health issues resulting in missed or irregular patient appointments; weak patient/healthcare provider relationship due to limited quality interaction; lack of patient information, patient empowerment and proper counseling on IPT; and the deficient reinforcement by health officials and other stakeholders on the significance of IPT medication adherence as a critical for positive health outcomes. Uptake of the implementation of IPT is facing a challenge in resource limited settings. This recalled provision of training/capacity building and awareness creation mechanism for the health workers, facilitating disclosure and social support for the patients is recommended.

  19. Risk Factors of Active Tuberculosis in People Living with HIV/AIDS ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    BACKGROUND: Determinants of active tuberculosis among People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) are not well elucidated in countries with limited resources. The objective of this study was to assess distal and proximate determinants of active tuberculosis among people living with HIV/AIDS in southwest. Ethiopia.

  20. Long-term resource variation and group size: A large-sample field test of the Resource Dispersion Hypothesis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morecroft Michael D

    2001-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The Resource Dispersion Hypothesis (RDH proposes a mechanism for the passive formation of social groups where resources are dispersed, even in the absence of any benefits of group living per se. Despite supportive modelling, it lacks empirical testing. The RDH predicts that, rather than Territory Size (TS increasing monotonically with Group Size (GS to account for increasing metabolic needs, TS is constrained by the dispersion of resource patches, whereas GS is independently limited by their richness. We conducted multiple-year tests of these predictions using data from the long-term study of badgers Meles meles in Wytham Woods, England. The study has long failed to identify direct benefits from group living and, consequently, alternative explanations for their large group sizes have been sought. Results TS was not consistently related to resource dispersion, nor was GS consistently related to resource richness. Results differed according to data groupings and whether territories were mapped using minimum convex polygons or traditional methods. Habitats differed significantly in resource availability, but there was also evidence that food resources may be spatially aggregated within habitat types as well as between them. Conclusions This is, we believe, the largest ever test of the RDH and builds on the long-term project that initiated part of the thinking behind the hypothesis. Support for predictions were mixed and depended on year and the method used to map territory borders. We suggest that within-habitat patchiness, as well as model assumptions, should be further investigated for improved tests of the RDH in the future.

  1. The Marine Living Resources Act was promulgated in South Africa ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    denise

    best used to create micro- and small-scale commercial enterprises that can serve to uplift poor fishers. Low- value resources ..... Ocean View was selected for the purpose; Swartkops .... SA 1998; 2 × 2 contingency analysis, χ2 = 2.1; df = 1;.

  2. What can we learn from resource pulses?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Louie H; Bastow, Justin L; Spence, Kenneth O; Wright, Amber N

    2008-03-01

    An increasing number of studies in a wide range of natural systems have investigated how pulses of resource availability influence ecological processes at individual, population, and community levels. Taken together, these studies suggest that some common processes may underlie pulsed resource dynamics in a wide diversity of systems. Developing a common framework of terms and concepts for the study of resource pulses may facilitate greater synthesis among these apparently disparate systems. Here, we propose a general definition of the resource pulse concept, outline some common patterns in the causes and consequences of resource pulses, and suggest a few key questions for future investigations. We define resource pulses as episodes of increased resource availability in space and time that combine low frequency (rarity), large magnitude (intensity), and short duration (brevity), and emphasize the importance of considering resource pulses at spatial and temporal scales relevant to specific resource-onsumer interactions. Although resource pulses are uncommon events for consumers in specific systems, our review of the existing literature suggests that pulsed resource dynamics are actually widespread phenomena in nature. Resource pulses often result from climatic and environmental factors, processes of spatiotemporal accumulation and release, outbreak population dynamics, or a combination of these factors. These events can affect life history traits and behavior at the level of individual consumers, numerical responses at the population level, and indirect effects at the community level. Consumers show strategies for utilizing ephemeral resources opportunistically, reducing resource variability by averaging over larger spatial scales, and tolerating extended interpulse periods of reduced resource availability. Resource pulses can also create persistent effects in communities through several mechanisms. We suggest that the study of resource pulses provides opportunities

  3. Water resources and the historic wells of Barbuda: tradition, heritage and hope for a sustainable future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rebecca Boger

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The island of Barbuda has a relatively unique history, land tenure and geography. Unlike its Caribbean counterparts, the island is not suited to large-scale agriculture due to its arid climate and relatively thin soils. Instead, the enslaved and eventually free people of Barbuda developed a complex herding ecology centered on common land ownership. As a result, carefully designed historic wells are strategically located around the island. With the challenges brought about by climate change, an interdisciplinary, international team led by the Barbuda Research Complex is investigating the state of existing water and food resources and examining how the availability and quality of water resources have influenced local cultural practices. Barbudans and international scientists are working together to improve their resilience and live more sustainably in this new era of climatic adversity.

  4. State financial resources of social development

    OpenAIRE

    Grinevskaya, Svetlana

    2015-01-01

    Problems of financial social resources management are considered. A model of interconnections of processes of financial provision of people's life sufficient level is proposed. It is identified that state budget is one of the main instruments of state regulation of economic processes of people's living quality provision.Improving of state regulation by financial resources of social development conditions the following budgeting principals: optimization of budget with the aim of human's develo...

  5. Public participation in water resources management: Restructuring model of upstream Musi watershed

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andriani, Yuli; Zagloel, T. Yuri M.; Koestoer, R. H.; Suparmoko, M.

    2017-11-01

    Water is the source of life needed by living things. Human as one of living most in needs of water. Because the population growth follows the geometrical progression, while the natural resource increases calculates the arithmetic. Humans besides needing water also need land for shelter and for their livelihood needs, such as gardening or rice farmers. If the water absorption area is reduced, water availability will decrease. Therefore it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study of water resources management involving the community. The purpose of this study is to analyze community participation in water resources management, so that its availability can still meet the needs of living and sustainable. The method that used the level of community participation according to Arstein theory. The results obtained that community participation is at the level of partnership and power delegation. This level of participation is at the level of participation that determines the sustainability of water resources for present and future generations.

  6. Saving the Commons: Community Involvement in the Management ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... full participation of local communities in resource management be set up to help avert further decline of the mangroves and fisheries of Chwaka Bay. Keywords: common property resources, mangroves, fisheries, overexploitation, community management. West Indian Ocean Journal of Marine Science Vol. 3 (2) 2004: pp.

  7. An Efficient Live TV Scheduling System for 4G LTE Broadcast

    KAUST Repository

    Lau, Chun Pong

    2016-01-01

    Traditional live television (TV) broadcasting systems are proven to be spectrum inefficient. Therefore, researchers propose to provide TV services on fourth-generation (4G) long-term evolution (LTE) networks. However, static broadcast, a typical broadcasting method over cellular network, is inefficient in terms of radio resource usage. To solve this problem, the audience-driven live TV scheduling (ADTVS) framework is proposed, to maximize radio resource usage when providing TV broadcasting services over LTE networks. ADTVS, a system-level scheduling framework, considers both available radio resources and audience preferences, in order to dynamically schedule TV channels for broadcasting at various time and locations. By conducting a simulation using real-life data and scenarios, it is shown that ADTVS significantly outperforms the static broadcast method. Numerical results indicate that, on average, ADTVS enables substantial improvement to broadcast efficiency and conserves considerable amount of radio resources, while forgoing less than 5% of user services compared to the benchmark system.

  8. Living with a Single Parent

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... kids in the United States live with one parent. Separation and divorce are the most common reasons for ... Who Are Moving Should Do What Is a Divorce? Getting Along With Parents Going to a Therapist View more About Us ...

  9. What Is Common about Common Schooling? Rational Autonomy and Moral Agency in Liberal Democratic Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, Hanan

    2007-01-01

    In this essay I critique two influential accounts of rational autonomy in common schooling that conceive liberalism as an ideal form of life, and I offer an alternative approach to democratic education that views liberal theory as concerned with coexistence among rival ways of living. This view places moral agency, not rational autonomy, at the…

  10. Competition over personal resources favors contribution to shared resources in human groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Barker, Jessie; Barclay, Pat; Reeve, H. Kern

    2013-01-01

    laboratory economic games with humans, comparing people's investment decisions in games with and without the options to compete over personal resources or invest in a group resource. Our results help explain why people cooperatively contribute to group resources, suggest how a tragedy of the commons may......Members of social groups face a trade-off between investing selfish effort for themselves and investing cooperative effort to produce a shared group resource. Many group resources are shared equitably: they may be intrinsically non-excludable public goods, such as vigilance against predators, or so...... large that there is little cost to sharing, such as cooperatively hunted big game. However, group members' personal resources, such as food hunted individually, may be monopolizable. In such cases, an individual may benefit by investing effort in taking others' personal resources, and in defending one...

  11. Understanding the Effects of Users' Behaviors on Effectiveness of Different Exogenous Regulatory Common Pool Resource Management Institutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Madani, K.; Dinar, A.

    2013-12-01

    Tragedy of the commons is generally recognized as one of the possible destinies for common pool resources (CPRs). To avoid the tragedy of the commons and prolonging the life of CPRs, users may show different behavioral characteristics and use different rationales for CPR planning and management. Furthermore, regulators may adopt different strategies for sustainable management of CPRs. The effectiveness of different regulatory exogenous management institutions cannot be evaluated through conventional CPR models since they assume that either users base their behavior on individual rationality and adopt a selfish behavior (Nash behavior), or that the users seek the system's optimal solution without giving priority to their own interests. Therefore, conventional models fail to reliably predict the outcome of CPR problems in which parties may have a range of behavioral characteristics, putting them somewhere in between the two types of behaviors traditionally considered. This work examines the effectiveness of different regulatory exogenous CPR management institutions through a user-based model (as opposed to a system-based model). The new modeling framework allows for consideration of sensitivity of the results to different behavioral characteristics of interacting CPR users. The suggested modeling approach is applied to a benchmark groundwater management problem. Results indicate that some well-known exogenous management institutions (e.g. taxing) are ineffective in sustainable management of CPRs in most cases. Bankruptcy-based management can be helpful, but determination of the fair level of cutbacks remains challenging under this type of institution. Furthermore, some bankruptcy rules such as the Constrained Equal Award (CEA) method are more beneficial to wealthier users, failing to establish social justice. Quota-based and CPR status-based management perform as the most promising and robust regulatory exogenous institutions in prolonging the CPR's life and

  12. Tragedy of the commons in Melipona bees

    OpenAIRE

    Wenseleers, Tom; Ratnieks, Francis L.W.

    2004-01-01

    In human society selfish use of common resources can lead to disaster, a situation known as the 'tragedy of the commons' (TOC). Although a TOC is usually prevented by coercion, theory predicts that close kinship ties can also favour reduced exploitation. We test this prediction using data on a TOC occurring in Melipona bee societies.

  13. [Internet-based continuing medical education: as effective as live continuing medical education].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maisonneuve, Hervé; Chabot, Olivier

    2009-10-01

    E-learning consists in using new multimedia and Internet technologies to improve the quality of learning activities by facilitating access to resources and services, as well as exchanges and remote collaboration. The Internet is used for adult education in most professional domains, but its use for continuing medical education is less developed. Advantages are observed for teachers (e.g., permanent updating, interactive links, illustrations, archiving, and collective intelligence) and for the learners (e.g., accessibility, autonomy, flexibility, and adaptable pace). Research and meta-analyses have shown that e-CME is as effective as live events for immediate and retained learning. English-language educational medical websites that grant CME credits are numerous; few such French-language sites can currently grant credits. Accreditation of websites for CME, in its infancy in Europe, is common in North America.

  14. An overview of the living marine resources of Namibia | Boyer ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The effect of major environmental anomalies on the distribution and abundance of the resources in recent years is discussed. The most dramatic anomaly in recent years was the wide-scale advection of low-oxygen water into the northern Benguela from the Angola Dome in 1994, and the subsequent Benguela Niño of 1995 ...

  15. Laboratories of commons: experimentation, recursivity and activism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adolfo Estalella Fernández

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available The urban public space, digital creations or the air, all of them are objects that have been traditionally thought within the dichotomous logic of the public and private property but in the last decade they have started to be considered as common resources. Commons is an old concept that has been recovered with intensity in the last decade; it refers to collective resources and goods that are governed collectively and whose property regime is different from the public and private. This article introduces the contributions to a monograph devoted to the topic of ‘Laboratories of commons’. Contributors discuss the diverse modalities of commons in different social domains like art, activism, the rural and the urban domain. This introduction contextualizes these contributions and identifies some of the issues that cross the different articles. In this exercise we introduce a tentative argument according to which the commons and the commons research take an exceptional configuration in Spain. Very briefly: commons are brought into existence as an epistemic object, an experimental domain quite different from the conventional conceptualizations that conceive it as a property regime or a type of good. This peculiar configuration gives a distinctive condition to commons in Spain that are different from other geographies; this is evidenced in a double shift: the emergence of new objects that are thought as commons and the location of their research in the domain of cultural and creative production.

  16. Day By Day in English: An ESL-SEDAC Daily Living Skills Resource Activities Guide. Final Edition and Resource Activities Packet, Final Edition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    New York City Board of Education, Brooklyn, NY. Div. of Special Education.

    The guide provides daily living experiences built around topics of interest to limited English speaking students in special education programs. Units are organized around eight themes: (1) at school; (2) living at home; (3) community, communication, and travel; (4) clothing and seasons; (5) shopping and food; (6) health, hygiene, and safety; (7)…

  17. Interviews of living kidney donors to assess donation-related concerns and information-gathering practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruck, Jessica M; Van Pilsum Rasmussen, Sarah E; Henderson, Macey L; Massie, Allan B; Segev, Dorry L

    2018-06-08

    Efforts are underway to improve living kidney donor (LKD) education, but current LKD concerns and information-gathering preferences have not been ascertained to inform evidence-based resource development. As a result, prior studies have found that donors desire information that is not included in current informed consent and/or educational materials. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 50 LKDs who donated at our center to assess (1) concerns about donation that they either had personally before or after donation or heard from family members or friends, (2) information that they had desired before donation, and (3) where they sought information about donation. We used thematic analysis of verbatim interview transcriptions to identify donation-related concerns. We compared the demographic characteristics of participants reporting specific concerns using Fisher's exact test. We identified 19 unique concerns that participants had or heard about living kidney donation. 20% of participants reported having had no pre-donation concerns; 38% reported no post-donation concerns. The most common concern pre-donation was future kidney failure (22%), post-donation was the recovery process (24%), and from family was endangering their family unit (16%). 44% of participants reported being less concerned than family. 26% of participants wished they had had additional information prior to donating, including practical advice for recovery (10%) and information about specific complications (14%). Caucasian participants were more likely to hear at least one concern from family (76% vs. 33%, p = 0.02). The most commonly consulted educational resources were health care providers (100%) and websites (79% of donors since 2000). 26% of participants had had contact with other donors; an additional 20% desired contact with other LKDs. Potential donors not only have personal donation-related concerns but frequently hear donation-related concerns from family members and friends

  18. Watershed Management: Lessons from Common Property Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John Kerr

    2007-10-01

    Full Text Available Watershed development is an important component of rural development and natural resource management strategies in many countries. A watershed is a special kind of common pool resource: an area defined by hydrological linkages where optimal management requires coordinated use of natural resources by all users. Management is difficult because natural resources comprising the watershed system have multiple, conflicting uses, so any given management approach will spread benefits and costs unevenly among users. To address these challenges, watershed approaches have evolved from more technocratic to a greater focus on social organization and participation. However, the latter cannot necessarily be widely replicated. In addition, participatory approaches have worked better at a small scale, but hydrological relationships cover a larger scale and some projects have faced tradeoffs in choosing between the two. Optimal approaches for future efforts are not clear, and theories from common property research do not support the idea that complex watershed management can succeed everywhere. Solutions may include simplifying watershed projects, pursuing watershed projects where conditions are favorable, and making other investments elsewhere, including building the organizational capacity that can facilitate watershed management.

  19. Tragedy of the commons in Melipona bees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wenseleers, Tom; Ratnieks, Francis L W

    2004-01-01

    In human society selfish use of common resources can lead to disaster, a situation known as the 'tragedy of the commons' (TOC). Although a TOC is usually prevented by coercion, theory predicts that close kinship ties can also favour reduced exploitation. We test this prediction using data on a TOC occurring in Melipona bee societies. PMID:15504003

  20. The global need for lived experience leadership.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Byrne, Louise; Stratford, Anthony; Davidson, Larry

    2018-03-01

    Common challenges and experiences of the lived experience/peer workforce globally are considered, with an emphasis on ensuring that future developments both protect and promote the unique lived experience perspective. In the Western world, rapid growth in lived experience roles has led to an urgent need for training and workforce development. However, research indicates the roles risk being coopted without clear lived experience leadership, which is often not occurring. In developing countries and in many Western contexts, the lived experience role has not yet been accepted within the mental health workforce. The need for lived experience leadership to guide these issues is highlighted. Peer-reviewed research, relevant gray literature, and professional experience in countries where little published material currently exists. A window of opportunity currently exists to maximize lived experience leadership, and that window may be closing fast if broad-based actions are not initiated now. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  1. Sustainability issues for resource managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Daniel L. Bottom; Gordon H. Reeves; Martha H. Brookes

    1996-01-01

    Throughout their history, conservation science and sustainable-yield management have failed to maintain the productivity of living resources. Repeated overexploitation of economic species, loss of biological diversity, and degradation of regional environments now call into question the economic ideas and values that have formed the foundation of scientific management...

  2. Common sense codified

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN Bulletin

    2010-01-01

    At CERN, people of more than a hundred different nationalities and hundreds of different professions work together towards a common goal. The new Code of Conduct is a tool that has been designed to help us keep our workplace pleasant and productive through common standards of behaviour. Its basic principle is mutual respect and common sense. This is only natural, but not trivial…  The Director-General announced it in his speech at the beginning of the year, and the Bulletin wrote about it immediately afterwards. "It" is the new Code of Conduct, the document that lists our Organization's values and describes the basic standards of behaviour that we should both adopt and expect from others. "The Code of Conduct is not going to establish new rights or new obligations," explains Anne-Sylvie Catherin, Head of the Human Resources Department (HR). But what it will do is provide a framework for our existing rights and obligations." The aim of a co...

  3. Screening for cervical cancer in low-resource settings in 2011.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tambouret, Rosemary

    2013-06-01

    Cervical cancer remains the most common malignancy in women living in low- and middle-income countries, despite the decline of the disease in countries where cervical cytology screening programs have been implemented. To review the current incidence of cervical cancer in low-resource countries, the availability and types of screening programs, and the treatment options. Literature review through PubMed, Internet search, and personal communication. Although data are incomplete, available figures confirm that the rate of cervical cancer deaths and the availability of cervical cancer screening programs are inversely proportional and vary, in general, by the wealth of the nation. Despite the success of cervical cytology screening, many major health care organizations have abandoned screening by cytology in favor of direct visualization methods with immediate treatment of lesions by cryotherapy provided by trained, nonmedical personnel.

  4. A Novel Method for Live Debugging of Production Web Applications by Dynamic Resource Replacement

    OpenAIRE

    Khalid Al-Tahat; Khaled Zuhair Mahmoud; Ahmad Al-Mughrabi

    2014-01-01

    This paper proposes a novel methodology for enabling debugging and tracing of production web applications without affecting its normal flow and functionality. This method of debugging enables developers and maintenance engineers to replace a set of existing resources such as images, server side scripts, cascading style sheets with another set of resources per web session. The new resources will only be active in the debug session and other sessions will not be affected. T...

  5. Organized Communities and Potable Water Public Utilities in Colombia: Advocacy for the Third Economic Option Based on the Common-pool Resources Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jhonny Moncada Mesa

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Based on the theory and institutional principles proposed by Elinor Ostrom, this paper explores whether Colombian organized communities are able to provide potable water public utility in a sustainable manner and manage it as a common-pool resource (CPR. For this purpose, a set of Colombian community aqueducts is selected and compared against the eight principles proposed by this theory. The results have shown that, in general it complies with institutional principles but it also highlights difficulties, particularly in regards to the "minimal recognition of organization rights" principle.

  6. Principles and indicators of green living families in Thai context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tamkarn Yuranun

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Green Living has been practiced in everyday life which is accepted worldwide. However, there is no concrete academic principles for Green Living. The understanding of Green Living is rather abstract. This study focuses on the academic principles and indicators of the Green Living Families in Thailand. The results from the studies will be used for further research.This qualitative study aims at proposing the principles and indicators of the Green Living Families in the Thai context. The research methodologies include the analysis and synthesis of various documents both from Thailand and foreign countries, interviews and observation of five Green Living Families. The results show that the principles consist of 1 production for one’s own consumption within the family 2 economical use of resources and 3 sharing with others and the society. The essential indicators comprise of 1 Knowledge, 2 Practice, and 3 Attitude on Green Living.

  7. Commons management and ecotourism: Ethnographic evidence from the Amazon

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Stronza, Amanda Lee

    2010-01-01

    TThe paper evaluates the relationship between ecotourism and commons management. Social and economic impacts of ecotourism in an indigenous village in the Peruvian Amazon are considered in relation to opportunities for collective action to manage common pool resources, including wildlife, forests,

  8. The lived experiences of street children in Durban, South Africa: Violence, substance use, and resilience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Frances Hills

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available South African studies have suggested that street children are resilient but also suicidal, engage in unprotected sex and other high risk sexual behaviour as a means of survival, have high rates of substance abuse and are physically abused and stigmatized due to their state of homelessness. However, few studies have explored in a more holistic manner the lived experiences of street children in South Africa. The main purpose of this study was to explore qualitatively the lived experiences of street children living on the street of Durban, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Adolescents (six males and four females between the ages of 14 and 18 years (average age=16 were purposively selected and in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the transcribed data revealed that incidence of violence and drug and alcohol use were common experiences of street life. Yet despite these challenges survival was made possible through personal and emotional strength, cultural values, religious beliefs, supportive peer relationships, and participation in sports activities. These protective, resilience resources should be strengthened in health promotion interventions with a focus on mental health, the prevention of violence, substance use, and daily physical activities that seems to provide meaning and hope.

  9. Relationships between the stocking levels of live trees and dead tree attributes in forests of the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    C.W. Woodall; J.A. Westfall

    2009-01-01

    There has been little examination of the relationship between the stocking of live trees in forests and the associated attributes of dead tree resources which could inform large-scale efforts to estimate and manage deadwood resources. The goal of this study was to examine the relationships between the stocking of standing live trees and attributes of standing dead and...

  10. 106-17 Telemetry Management Resources Chapter 25

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-07-01

    shall not be persistent except where specifically designated. Resources designated as persistent shall have their value stored in non-volatile memory ... false ”. To cancel the configuration process, a TmNSApp manager may execute either a TMA reset or a TmNSHost reset. 3. Upon receipt of the...tmnsTmaCommon:tmnsTmaCommonConfiguration:configure resource to “ false ”. e. Send a configurationCompleteNotification via the

  11. Resources that promote positive youth development

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martha Frías Armenta

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Adolescence is a crucial developmental phase that shapes people´s futures. Positive psychology investigates the variables that promote the optimal development of human beings. It recognizes that all children and adolescents have strengths that will develop once these strengths match the resources needed to achieve this in the various settings in which they live. The aim of this study was to analyze from a multidisciplinary perspective (e.g. psychological, sociological, and economic the effect of resources that promote positive youth development. The sample consisted of 200 middle school students (15 to 19 years. EQS statistical software was used to analyse a structural equation model in which the study variables comprised 4 factors: one for each resource (economic, psychological, sociological, and one for positive youth development. The results showed a direct association between psychological and social resources and positive development, and between social resources and psychological assets. However, no association was found between economic resources and positive youth development. These results suggest that the main influences on positive youth development are psychological and social resources.

  12. Imposex in the common whelk, Buccinum undatum

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mensink, B.P.

    1999-01-01

    The research described in this thesis concerned the perhaps best known and studied common gastropod from the open North Sea of which only limited information was available. With the present research more insight has been obtained concerning this long-lived, off-shore snail species, which

  13. Transforming library service through information commons case studies for the digital age

    CERN Document Server

    Bailey, D Russell

    2008-01-01

    The Information Commons (IC) strives to unite all the facts and figures of the world into a resource available to everyone. Many academic libraries are considering implementing an information commons model that reflects the contemporary way patrons use resources. Others plan on revitalizing their libraries through configurations that easily integrate research, teaching, and learning with a digital focus. This invaluable guide provides the "how-to" information necessary for institutions considering the development of an information commons. Offering plain-speaking advice on what works, expert

  14. A common-garden study of resource-island effects on a native and an exotic, annual grass after fire

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hoover, Amber N.; Germino, Matthew J.

    2012-01-01

    Plant-soil variation related to perennial-plant resource islands (coppices) interspersed with relatively bare interspaces is a major source of heterogeneity in desert rangelands. Our objective was to determine how native and exotic grasses vary on coppice mounds and interspaces (microsites) in unburned and burned sites and underlying factors that contribute to the variation in sagebrush-steppe rangelands of the Idaho National Lab, where interspaces typically have abiotic crusts. We asked how the exotic cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) and native bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata [Pursh] A. Löve) were distributed among the microsites and measured their abundances in three replicate wildfires and nearby unburned areas. We conducted a common-garden study in which soil cores from each burned microsite type were planted with seed of either species to determine microsite effects on establishment and growth of native and exotic grasses. We assessed soil physical properties in the common-garden study to determine the intrinsic properties of each microsite surface and the retention of microsite soil differences following transfer of soils to the garden, to plant growth, and to wetting/drying cycles. In the field study, only bluebunch wheatgrass density was greater on coppice mounds than interspaces, in both unburned and burned areas. In the common-garden experiment, there were microsite differences in soil physical properties, particularly in crust hardness and its relationship to moisture, but soil properties were unaffected by plant growth. Also in the experiment, both species had equal densities yet greater dry mass production on coppice-mound soils compared to interspace soils, suggesting microsite differences in growth but not establishment (likely related to crust weakening resulting from watering). Coppice-interspace patterning and specifically native-herb recovery on coppices is likely important for postfire resistance of this rangeland to cheatgrass.

  15. Merge of terminological resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Henriksen, Lina; Braasch, Anna

    2012-01-01

    In our globalized world, the amount of cross-national communication increases rapidly, which also calls for easy access to multi-lingual high quality terminological resources. Sharing of terminology resources is currently becoming common practice, and efficient strategies for integration...... – or merging – of terminology resources are strongly needed. This paper discusses prerequisites for successful merging with the focus on identification of candidate duplicates of a subject domain found in the resources to be merged, and it describes automatic merging strategies to be applied to such duplicates...... in electronic terminology resources. Further, some perspectives of manual, supplementary assessment methods supporting the automatic procedures are sketched. Our considerations are primarily based on experience gained in the IATE and EuroTermBank projects, as merging was a much discussed issue in both projects....

  16. Revisiting Maine’s lobster commons: rescaling political subjects

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer F. Brewer

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Calls for cross-scalar theoretical and methodological approaches are not new to commons scholarship. Such efforts might be hastened by channelling poststructuralist and critical theory perspectives through the geographic subfield of political ecology, including attention to political scales and subjects. Toward this end, this paper reconsiders Maine’s lobster fishery. This case has provided rich material for watershed commons scholarship, demonstrating the ability of social groups to conserve resources independent of government or markets, and it continues to offer new findings. Recent fieldwork shows that as lobster boat captains advance collective interests through state-supported co-management governance arrangements, concerns of crew and non-fishing community members may be marginalized. Regulatory exclusion prevents broader distribution of resource benefits at a time when employment alternatives are scarce. More pluralistic approaches to commons theory and its policy application have utility well beyond the lobster case.

  17. SHARING RESOURCES THROUGH COLLABORATION USING TECHNOLOGY

    Science.gov (United States)

    In response to changing social and economic conditions, instant communication, emerging technology, and decreasing resources for libraries, there is a need for librarians to use collaborative methods, strategies, and technologies to solve common problems or produce common produ...

  18. Strategies to reduce exclusion among populations living in urban slum settlements in Bangladesh.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rashid, Sabina Faiz

    2009-08-01

    The health and rights of populations living in informal or slum settlements are key development issues of the twenty-first century. As of 2007, the majority of the world's population lives in urban areas. More than one billion of these people, or one in three city-dwellers, live in inadequate housing with no or a few basic resources. In Bangladesh, urban slum settlements tend to be located in low-lying, flood-prone, poorly-drained areas, having limited formal garbage disposal and minimal access to safe water and sanitation. These areas are severely crowded, with 4-5 people living in houses of just over 100 sq feet. These conditions of high density of population and poor sanitation exacerbate the spread of diseases. People living in these areas experience social, economic and political exclusion, which bars them from society's basic resources. This paper overviews policies and actions that impact the level of exclusion of people living in urban slum settlements in Bangladesh, with a focus on improving the health and rights of the urban poor. Despite some strategies adopted to ensure better access to water and health, overall, the country does not have a comprehensive policy for urban slum residents, and the situation remains bleak.

  19. Strategies to Reduce Exclusion among Populations Living in Urban Slum Settlements in Bangladesh

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-01-01

    The health and rights of populations living in informal or slum settlements are key development issues of the twenty-first century. As of 2007, the majority of the world's population lives in urban areas. More than one billion of these people, or one in three city-dwellers, live in inadequate housing with no or a few basic resources. In Bangladesh, urban slum settlements tend to be located in low-lying, flood-prone, poorly-drained areas, having limited formal garbage disposal and minimal access to safe water and sanitation. These areas are severely crowded, with 4–5 people living in houses of just over 100 sq feet. These conditions of high density of population and poor sanitation exacerbate the spread of diseases. People living in these areas experience social, economic and political exclusion, which bars them from society's basic resources. This paper overviews policies and actions that impact the level of exclusion of people living in urban slum settlements in Bangladesh, with a focus on improving the health and rights of the urban poor. Despite some strategies adopted to ensure better access to water and health, overall, the country does not have a comprehensive policy for urban slum residents, and the situation remains bleak. PMID:19761090

  20. A Case for Data Commons: Toward Data Science as a Service.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grossman, Robert L; Heath, Allison; Murphy, Mark; Patterson, Maria; Wells, Walt

    2016-01-01

    Data commons collocate data, storage, and computing infrastructure with core services and commonly used tools and applications for managing, analyzing, and sharing data to create an interoperable resource for the research community. An architecture for data commons is described, as well as some lessons learned from operating several large-scale data commons.

  1. On harm thresholds and living organ donation: must the living donor benefit, on balance, from his donation?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Nicola Jane

    2018-03-01

    For the majority of scholars concerned with the ethics of living organ donation, inflicting moderate harms on competent volunteers in order to save the lives or increase the life chances of others is held to be justifiable provided certain conditions are met. These conditions tend to include one, or more commonly, some combination of the following: (1) The living donor provides valid consent to donation. (2) Living donation produces an overall positive balance of harm-benefit for donors and recipients which cannot be obtained in a less harmful manner. (3) Donation is not liable to cause significant and long-term morbidity to, or the death of, the donor. This paper critically examines the suggestion that these criteria are not sufficient to offer a general account of justified living organ donation in the context of competent volunteers and that key to justified living organ donation is that donors receive sufficient benefits from their donation that these outweigh the harms they suffer. However, although this view-termed here 'The Donor Benefit Standard'-directs welcome attention to the many and complex motives which may underlie living organ donation, this paper ultimately concludes that given the threats this position poses to individual autonomy and the lives of those in need of organ transplants 'The Donor Benefit Standard' should ultimately be rejected.

  2. Competition over personal resources favors contribution to shared resources in human groups.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jessica L Barker

    Full Text Available Members of social groups face a trade-off between investing selfish effort for themselves and investing cooperative effort to produce a shared group resource. Many group resources are shared equitably: they may be intrinsically non-excludable public goods, such as vigilance against predators, or so large that there is little cost to sharing, such as cooperatively hunted big game. However, group members' personal resources, such as food hunted individually, may be monopolizable. In such cases, an individual may benefit by investing effort in taking others' personal resources, and in defending one's own resources against others. We use a game theoretic "tug-of-war" model to predict that when such competition over personal resources is possible, players will contribute more towards a group resource, and also obtain higher payoffs from doing so. We test and find support for these predictions in two laboratory economic games with humans, comparing people's investment decisions in games with and without the options to compete over personal resources or invest in a group resource. Our results help explain why people cooperatively contribute to group resources, suggest how a tragedy of the commons may be avoided, and highlight unifying features in the evolution of cooperation and competition in human and non-human societies.

  3. Detection of nidoviruses in live pythons and boas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Marschang, Rachel E; Kolesnik, Ekaterina

    2017-02-09

    Nidoviruses have recently been described as a putative cause of severe respiratory disease in pythons in the USA and Europe. The objective of this study was to establish the use of a conventional PCR for the detection of nidoviruses in samples from live animals and to extend the list of susceptible species. A PCR targeting a portion of ORF1a of python nidoviruses was used to detect nidoviruses in diagnostic samples from live boas and pythons. A total of 95 pythons, 84 boas and 22 snakes of unknown species were included in the study. Samples tested included oral swabs and whole blood. Nidoviruses were detected in 27.4% of the pythons and 2.4% of the boas tested. They were most commonly detected in ball pythons (Python [P.] regius) and Indian rock pythons (P. molurus), but were also detected for the first time in other python species, including Morelia spp. and Boa constrictor. Oral swabs were most commonly tested positive. The PCR described here can be used for the detection of nidoviruses in oral swabs from live snakes. These viruses appear to be relatively common among snakes in captivity in Europe and screening for these viruses should be considered in the clinical work-up. Nidoviruses are believed to be an important cause of respiratory disease in pythons, but can also infect boas. Detection of these viruses in live animals is now possible and can be of interest both in diseased animals as well as in quarantine situations.

  4. The usefulness of traditional birth attendants to women living with HIV in resource-poor settings: the case of Mfuwe, Zambia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muzyamba, Choolwe; Groot, Wim; Tomini, Sonila M; Pavlova, Milena

    2017-01-01

    Although there is increased attention on the role of trained traditional birth attendants (TBAs) in maternal care, most of the research has mainly focused on providing evidence of the relevance of trained TBAs to women in general without a specific focus on women who are HIV positive, despite them being most vulnerable. Therefore, the aim of this study is to fill this gap by assessing the relevance of trained TBAs to women living with HIV in resource-poor settings by using Zambia as a case study. Our data collection consisted of two focus group discussions, one involving HIV-positive women utilizing trained TBAs and the other with women not utilizing TBAs. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with trained TBAs and health workers. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. In general, women living with HIV positively characterized the services of TBAs. In the face of an inefficient health system, trained TBAs were seen to be useful in providing efficient, cheap and quality care, counseling, and referral and logistical support, including treatment adherence support. In Zambia, trained TBAs and professional care are not mutually exclusive but complementary. There is no doubt that HIV-positive women need professionals to handle complications and offer antiretroviral treatment to ensure prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT). However, additional "soft" services offered by trained TBAs are equally important in the promotion of maternal health care among HIV-positive women. Thus, it seems there is more to gain by systematically allowing trained TBAs to work alongside professionals in a well-coordinated and complementary manner.

  5. Living alone in South and Southeast Asia: An analysis of census data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chai Podhisita

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Living alone (in a one-person household has reached very high levels in some parts of the world. Across Asia the phenomenon is common in parts of East Asia, but has rarely been examined in South or Southeast Asia. Objective: The authors seek to establish from the evidence of censuses the main contours of living alone in South and Southeast Asia, and in doing so address issues of definition and measurement, particularly issues arising due to differences in the census handling of the 'group quarters' type of household. Methods: The paper examines 10 national censuses in the IPUMS archive of census micro-files. The data are explored for age profiles of living alone by sex, classified by urban versus rural residence and marital status. Results: The censuses reveal a combination of underlying commonalities among the countries and dates as well as distinct national features. There are distinct age profiles for males and females, and profiles typical of urban and rural sectors across countries. Living alone in group quarters is most common among young adults. Tabulation by marital status shows considerable variation among single young adults and elderly widowed or divorced/separated persons. It is also found that the proportions of the population not living with core family who are living alone vary widely by age and sex and across countries and years. Conclusions: Studies of living alone with national censuses must take note of whether conventional households and group quarters are included and how these are defined. Group quarters residence makes up a significant proportion of living alone among the young.

  6. Intergroup Cooperation in Common Pool Resource Dilemmas.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadowski, Jathan; Spierre, Susan G; Selinger, Evan; Seager, Thomas P; Adams, Elizabeth A; Berardy, Andrew

    2015-10-01

    Fundamental problems of environmental sustainability, including climate change and fisheries management, require collective action on a scale that transcends the political and cultural boundaries of the nation-state. Rational, self-interested neoclassical economic theories of human behavior predict tragedy in the absence of third party enforcement of agreements and practical difficulties that prevent privatization. Evolutionary biology offers a theory of cooperation, but more often than not in a context of discrimination against other groups. That is, in-group boundaries are necessarily defined by those excluded as members of out-groups. However, in some settings human's exhibit behavior that is inconsistent with both rational economic and group driven cooperation of evolutionary biological theory. This paper reports the results of a non-cooperative game-theoretic exercise that models a tragedy of the commons problem in which groups of players may advance their own positions only at the expense of other groups. Students enrolled from multiple universities and assigned to different multi-university identity groups participated in experiments that repeatedly resulted in cooperative outcomes despite intergroup conflicts and expressions of group identity. We offer three possible explanations: (1) students were cooperative because they were in an academic setting; (2) students may have viewed their instructors as the out-group; or (3) the emergence of a small number of influential, ethical leaders is sufficient to ensure cooperation amongst the larger groups. From our data and analysis, we draw out lessons that may help to inform approaches for institutional design and policy negotiations, particularly in climate change management.

  7. Common Marsh Plants of the United States and Canada. Resource Publication 93.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hotchkiss, Neil

    Described in this guide are the emergent and semiemergent plants most likely to be found in inland and coastal marshes. The guide is intended for field identification of marsh plants without resources to technical botanical keys. The plants are discussed in seven groups. Within each group the kinds which resemble one another most closely are next…

  8. Nurturing transdisciplinary research - lessons from live experiments in prioritising and supporting novel risk science (Invited)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rees, J.; Armstrong, C.; Barclay, J.; Moores, A.; Whitaker, D.

    2013-12-01

    The benefits of specialization over the last 150 years have meant that science has evolved within several distinct disciplines, such as physical, social or environmental. These have generated their own cultures, languages, agendas, institutions, measures of success and cohorts of suitably branded scientists. However, we increasingly see that society and the environment are exposed to many complex, interdependent and rapidly changing risks - not only from natural hazards, but also those associated with fast expanding and ageing populations, highly interconnected and interdependent economies, rapid climate change, and increasingly limited resources. Risks derived from such interacting drivers commonly generate non-linear effects or repercussions and future risks may be very different to those of today; significantly, they span many traditional science disciplines. We thus need to have a fresh look at transdisciplinary risk science, bring in novel ideas and new blood. But what are the best practical ways of sowing the seeds and fertilizing such approaches? The presentation describes novel practical steps to achieve this, all related to building and resourcing transdisciplinary research which incorporates natural hazard science within the UK over the last 5 years. These comprise instruments to prioritise science gaps and provide funding for transdisciplinary research by a) Academic research funders - the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Risk Research Network and current research programmes; b) Government and non-governmental research funders - the Living with Environmental Change Initiative, and the UK Flooding and coastal erosion risk management research strategy - and the UK Collaborative for Development Science sponsored Disasters Research Group; and c) Business funding - through integrated risk modelling for the insurance industry. Whilst young, all these initiatives are healthy and seek to build a portfolio of small scale initiatives that will breed success and develop

  9. Convex geometry of quantum resource quantification

    Science.gov (United States)

    Regula, Bartosz

    2018-01-01

    We introduce a framework unifying the mathematical characterisation of different measures of general quantum resources and allowing for a systematic way to define a variety of faithful quantifiers for any given convex quantum resource theory. The approach allows us to describe many commonly used measures such as matrix norm-based quantifiers, robustness measures, convex roof-based measures, and witness-based quantifiers together in a common formalism based on the convex geometry of the underlying sets of resource-free states. We establish easily verifiable criteria for a measure to possess desirable properties such as faithfulness and strong monotonicity under relevant free operations, and show that many quantifiers obtained in this framework indeed satisfy them for any considered quantum resource. We derive various bounds and relations between the measures, generalising and providing significantly simplified proofs of results found in the resource theories of quantum entanglement and coherence. We also prove that the quantification of resources in this framework simplifies for pure states, allowing us to obtain more easily computable forms of the considered measures, and show that many of them are in fact equal on pure states. Further, we investigate the dual formulation of resource quantifiers, which provide a characterisation of the sets of resource witnesses. We present an explicit application of the results to the resource theories of multi-level coherence, entanglement of Schmidt number k, multipartite entanglement, as well as magic states, providing insight into the quantification of the four resources by establishing novel quantitative relations and introducing new quantifiers, such as a measure of entanglement of Schmidt number k which generalises the convex roof-extended negativity, a measure of k-coherence which generalises the \

  10. Water advisory demand evaluation and resource toolkit

    OpenAIRE

    Paluszczyszyn, D.; Illya, S.; Goodyer, E.; Kubrycht, T.; Ambler, M.

    2016-01-01

    Cities are living organisms, 24h / 7day, with demands on resources and outputs. Water is a key resource whose management has not kept pace with modern urban life. Demand for clean water and loads on waste water no longer fit diurnal patterns; and they are impacted by events that are outside the normal range of parameters that are taken account of in water management. This feasibility study will determine how the application of computational intelligence can be used to analyse a mix of dat...

  11. 4G femtocells resource allocation and interference management

    CERN Document Server

    Zhang, Haijun; Wen, Xiangming

    2014-01-01

    This brief examines resource allocation and interference management for 4G femtocells. It introduces 4G femtocells in the context of 4G mobile networks and discusses related technical challenges in resource allocation and interference management. Topics include ant colony algorithm based downlink resource allocation, intelligent scheduling and power control, uplink and downlink for two-tier networks, quality of service (QoS) constraints and the cross-tier interference constraint. The authors present algorithms to alleviate common femtocell-related problems such as subchannel power allocation. The complexity of the proposed resource allocation algorithms is analyzed, and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms is verified by simulations. This concise and practical book directly addresses common problems relating to femtocells and resource management. It serves as a useful tool for researchers in the field. Advanced-level students or professionals interested in femtocells and networks will also find the co...

  12. Resource Allocation and Justice-based Arguments for Funding

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    2018-03-01

    Mar 1, 2018 ... healthcare system that would ensure Nigerians, access to glaucoma treatment ...... proceeds from the sales of common patrimony of natural resources ..... Besides, it would plausibly optimize use of healthcare resources and.

  13. Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Highlands of ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    2012-01-01

    Jan 1, 2012 ... Book cover Integrated Natural Resource Management in the ... with the common goal of implementing an integrated approach to natural resource ... and the International Water Management Institute in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

  14. Quantifying global exergy resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hermann, Weston A.

    2006-01-01

    Exergy is used as a common currency to assess and compare the reservoirs of theoretically extractable work we call energy resources. Resources consist of matter or energy with properties different from the predominant conditions in the environment. These differences can be classified as physical, chemical, or nuclear exergy. This paper identifies the primary exergy reservoirs that supply exergy to the biosphere and quantifies the intensive and extensive exergy of their derivative secondary reservoirs, or resources. The interconnecting accumulations and flows among these reservoirs are illustrated to show the path of exergy through the terrestrial system from input to its eventual natural or anthropogenic destruction. The results are intended to assist in evaluation of current resource utilization, help guide fundamental research to enable promising new energy technologies, and provide a basis for comparing the resource potential of future energy options that is independent of technology and cost

  15. Wind and solar resource data sets: Wind and solar resource data sets

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Clifton, Andrew [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; Hodge, Bri-Mathias [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; Power Systems Engineering Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; Draxl, Caroline [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; National Wind Technology Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; Badger, Jake [Department of Wind Energy, Danish Technical University, Copenhagen Denmark; Habte, Aron [National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA; Power Systems Engineering Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden CO USA

    2017-12-05

    The range of resource data sets spans from static cartography showing the mean annual wind speed or solar irradiance across a region to high temporal and high spatial resolution products that provide detailed information at a potential wind or solar energy facility. These data sets are used to support continental-scale, national, or regional renewable energy development; facilitate prospecting by developers; and enable grid integration studies. This review first provides an introduction to the wind and solar resource data sets, then provides an overview of the common methods used for their creation and validation. A brief history of wind and solar resource data sets is then presented, followed by areas for future research.

  16. Use value, exchange value, and resource scarcity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stern, D.I.

    1999-01-01

    The literature on natural resource scarcity indicators is reviewed. Scarcity indicators can be classified by what is being measured: value of the resource stock or value of extracted resource commodities; whose value is considered: social vs. private scarcity; and by the mode of valuation considered: exchange value and use value. Prices and rents are common measures of exchange value or indicators of ''exchange scarcity'' and unit costs can be seen as use value indicators or indicators of u se scarcity . The major aim of this paper is to demonstrate the links between productivity indicators such as unit costs and the classical concept of use value. The two classes of indicator relate to John Commons' discussions of scarcity and efficiency, and a marginal vs. a non-marginal approach to value and scarcity. The classical use value concept also has wider relevance for issues of valuation in energy, resource, and environmental policy. (author)

  17. The Cochrane Collaboration: Institutional Analysis of a Knowledge Commons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heywood, Peter; Stephani, Anne Marie; Garner, Paul

    2018-01-01

    Cochrane is an international network that produces and updates new knowledge through systematic reviews for the health sector. Knowledge is a shared resource, and can be viewed as a commons. As Cochrane has been in existence for 25 years, we used Elinor Ostrom's theory of the commons and Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to appraise…

  18. Living with illness and self-transcendence: the lived experience of patients with spinal muscular atrophy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ho, Hsin-Mei; Tseng, Ying-Hua; Hsin, Yu-Mei; Chou, Fan-Hao; Lin, Wei-Ting

    2016-11-01

    The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of patients afflicted with spinal muscular atrophy. Existing research studies on spinal muscular atrophy address the physical and psychological effects and complications of the disease; they also provide suggestions for how to improve the current management of this disease. However, information is limited on the disease process and the lived experience of spinal muscular atrophy patients. A phenomenological approach was conducted. Through 18 in-depth interviews recorded by a pen voice recorder, this study collected data obtained from a purposive sample of nine patients from the, 'Taiwan spinal muscular atrophy Families,' between November 2010-August 2011. The audio recordings were transcribed verbatim and data were analysed using Colaizzi's steps. Four themes and eight subthemes were identified: a loss of control (loss of muscular strength and independence), breaking limitations (assistive device use and mobility design), transcending limitations (independence/autonomy and social development) and living with hope (cherishing life and self-control). The results showed that the lived experiences of the spinal muscular atrophy patients involved living with illness, transcending the self and pursuing the meaning of life. Facing a life-threatening illness, these patients made self-adjustments in their lifestyles and exerted themselves to positively cope with hardships and maintain dignity and self-control. These findings could serve as evidence-based practice resources for healthcare professionals in helping individuals and their family members gain an in-depth understanding of spinal muscular atrophy's progression and life course and assist individuals in improving self-integrity to with hope. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  19. Commons management and ecotourism: Ethnographic evidence from the Amazon

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Amanda Lee Stronza

    2009-09-01

    Full Text Available The paper evaluates the relationship between ecotourism and commons management. Social and economic impacts of ecotourism in an indigenous village in the Peruvian Amazon are considered in relation to opportunities for collective action to manage common pool resources, including wildlife, forests, and river habitats. Longitudinal, ethnographic data gathered over 12 years about a joint venture ecotourism project between a private company and a local community show three outcomes that support commons management and three outcomes that challenge it. The outcomes in favor of commons management include: direct economic returns that act as conservation incentives, strengthened organization resulting from participatory management of ecotourism, and expanded networks of support from outside actors. Outcomes that are challenging the potential for collective action include: direct economic returns that enable expanded individual production and extraction, a new spirit of individual entrepreneurship that threatens to debilitate traditional social relations and institutions, and a conservation ethic that fosters dualistic thinking about people and nature and the zoning of places where resources are used vs. where they are preserved.

  20. Peer support and peer-led family support for persons living with schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duckworth, Kenneth; Halpern, Lisa

    2014-05-01

    Peer support and peer-led family psychoeducation represent two distinct and complementary recovery-oriented models to support individuals who live with schizophrenia and their families, respectively. The goals of these models focus on improving knowledge, coping, self-care, social support, and self-management strategies. These models represent important capacity-building strategies for people who live with the illness and the people who love them. This brief article is intended to provide the practicing clinician, person living with schizophrenia, and policy maker with a working knowledge of the current state of the literature in these two related fields. Practitioners should consider these resources and integrate them into their care. A person living with schizophrenia could use this review to advocate for appropriate resources and to identify career opportunities. Policy makers could benefit from an understanding of the literature to mitigate financial and cultural barriers to adopting these practices. The last 5 years have seen a dramatic expansion of the application of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to give evidence to match the experience of people in these programs. The field has seen Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) named as evidence-based practice by the National Registry of Evidence-Based Practices. A RCT was also conducted for another peer-developed and led program called Building Recovery of Individual Dreams & Goals through Education & Support. Family to Family, the largest peer-led family psychoeducation course, was also found to have significant impact after the study and also 6 months later in RCT. Family to Family has also been named as an evidence-based practice. The field of people who are living well with schizophrenia working as resources and supports to others living with the illness is an idea that is growing momentum. This momentum has been matched by the RCT evidence. Peer support as a professional role has an emerging literature

  1. Psychological career resources and coping resources of the young unemployed African graduate: An exploratory study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Melinde Coetzee

    2010-05-01

    Research purpose: This study explored the relationship between the psychological career resources(as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory and coping resources (as measured by the Coping Resources Inventory of a sample of 196 young unemployed African graduates. Motivation for study: There is an increasing need for career counsellors and practitioners to explore the psychological attributes and career-related resources that young people employ or require to help them deal with the challenges posed by unemployment during the school-to-work transition phase of their lives. Research design, approach and method: A survey design and quantitative statistical procedures were used to achieve the research objective. Convenience sampling was used on a population of 500 unemployed graduate black people who attended a 12-week Work Readiness Programme (39% response rate. Main findings: Multiple regression analyses indicated that dimensions of psychological career resources contribute signifcantly to explaining the proportion of variance in the participants’coping resources scores. Practical implications: The insights derived from the findings can be employed by career counsellors and practitioners to construct a more comprehensive career framework for the individual in the school-to-work transition phase. Contribution/value-add: The findings add valuable new knowledge that can be used to inform career services concerned with guiding and counselling young graduates in the school-to-work transition phase.

  2. Optimal resource allocation for distributed video communication

    CERN Document Server

    He, Yifeng

    2013-01-01

    While most books on the subject focus on resource allocation in just one type of network, this book is the first to examine the common characteristics of multiple distributed video communication systems. Comprehensive and systematic, Optimal Resource Allocation for Distributed Video Communication presents a unified optimization framework for resource allocation across these systems. The book examines the techniques required for optimal resource allocation over Internet, wireless cellular networks, wireless ad hoc networks, and wireless sensor networks. It provides you with the required foundat

  3. Developing a Theory-Based Simulation Educator Resource.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, Christine M; Sievers, Lisa D; Kellgren, Molly; Manning, Sara J; Rojas, Deborah E; Gamblian, Vivian C

    2015-01-01

    The NLN Leadership Development Program for Simulation Educators 2014 faculty development group identified a lack of a common language/terminology to outline the progression of expertise of simulation educators. The group analyzed Benner's novice-to-expert model and applied its levels of experience to simulation educator growth. It established common operational categories of faculty development and used them to organize resources that support progression toward expertise. The resulting theory-based Simulator Educator Toolkit outlines levels of ability and provides quality resources to meet the diverse needs of simulation educators and team members.

  4. Making It Happen: Common Core Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2011

    2011-01-01

    This one-of-a-kind guide identifies and highlights the ways in which NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) resources can support teachers as they implement and supplement the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) in their states. The guide and accompanying charts are tools to help educators as they continue to make…

  5. Food Insecurity and Common Mental Disorders among Ethiopian Youth: Structural Equation Modeling.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mulusew G Jebena

    Full Text Available Although the consequences of food insecurity on physical health and nutritional status of youth living have been reported, its effect on their mental health remains less investigated in developing countries. The aim of this study was to examine the pathways through which food insecurity is associated with poor mental health status among youth living in Ethiopia.We used data from Jimma Longitudinal Family Survey of Youth (JLFSY collected in 2009/10. A total of 1,521 youth were included in the analysis. We measured food insecurity using a 5-items scale and common mental disorders using the 20-item Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20. Structural and generalized equation modeling using maximum likelihood estimation method was used to analyze the data.The prevalence of common mental disorders was 30.8% (95% CI: 28.6, 33.2. Food insecurity was independently associated with common mental disorders (β = 0.323, P<0.05. Most (91.8% of the effect of food insecurity on common mental disorders was direct and only 8.2% of their relationship was partially mediated by physical health. In addition, poor self-rated health (β = 0.285, P<0.05, high socioeconomic status (β = -0.076, P<0.05, parental education (β = 0.183, P<0.05, living in urban area (β = 0.139, P<0.05, and female-headed household (β = 0.192, P<0.05 were associated with common mental disorders.Food insecurity is directly associated with common mental disorders among youth in Ethiopia. Interventions that aim to improve mental health status of youth should consider strategies to improve access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food.

  6. Impact of Living Alone on Depressive Symptoms in Older Korean Widows

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gyeong-Suk Jeon

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available We examined the relationship between living alone and the prevalence of depressive symptoms in older Korean widows and assessed the individual contributions of health, social ties, and socioeconomic factors to the development of depressive symptoms. The study was a secondary analysis using data from widows, 65 years of age and older, who participated in the Living Profiles of Older People Survey (LPOPS. A logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the contributions of health, social ties, and socioeconomic factors to the development of depressive symptoms. Working status and equivalent household income were significantly associated with depressive symptoms in both those living with others and those living alone. Adjustment for health status and social ties did not change the impact of living alone on the prevalence of depressive symptoms. However, adjustment for equivalent household income eliminated the negative association between living alone and depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that economic resources are more important than health and social ties for alleviating the negative impact of living alone on the development of depressive symptoms in older widows.

  7. Resources for future generations – understanding earth and people

    OpenAIRE

    Thompson, J.; Eagle, L.; Bonham, O.

    2017-01-01

    Earth’s growing population requires resources for the basics of life and increasing standards of living. Energy from many sources, numerous minerals and water are critical for human existence, and are increasingly linked in the context of sustainability. For future generations, resources must be discovered and cleanly exploited, even as efforts to improve efficiency and increase recycling continue. To succeed, we must fully understand the earth, from the critical processes that concentrate r...

  8. Lesson Planning with the Common Core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Estes, Linda A.; McDuffie, Amy Roth; Tate, Cathie

    2014-01-01

    Planning a lesson can be similar to planning a road trip--a metaphor the authors use to describe how they applied research and theory to their lesson planning process. A map and mode of transportation, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and textbooks as resources, can lead to desired destinations, such as students engaging in…

  9. Quail and other short-lived birds.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ottinger, M A

    2001-04-01

    Japanese quail are small galliforms that are migratory and generally live 2 to 3years in the wild. Although there is evidence for other environmental cues, they primarily respond to long daylength for regulation of reproduction. In contrast to the Common Tern, a long-lived sea bird that shows little evidence of reproductive aging, Japanese quail follow a well-defined process of aging with evidence of declining function in reproductive, metabolic, and sensory systems. Our studies focus on neuroendocrine changes associated with reproductive aging in the Japanese quail, with emphasis on the male in order to study both endocrine and behavioral components of reproduction and the process of reproductive aging.

  10. Biomechanical studies: science (f)or common sense?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mellema, Jos J.; Doornberg, Job N.; Guitton, Thierry G.; Ring, David; van der Zwan, A. L.; Spoor, A. B.; van Vugt, A. B.; Armstrong, A. D.; Shrivastava, A.; Wahegaonkar, A. L.; Shafritz, A. B.; Adams, J.; Ilyas, A.; Vochteloo, A. J. H.; Castillo, A. P.; Basak, A.; Andreas, P.; Barquet, A.; Kristan, A.; Berner, A.; Ranade, A. B.; Ashish, S.; Terrono, A. L.; Jubel, A.; Frieman, B.; Bamberger, H. B.; van den Bekerom, M. P. J.; Belangero, W. D.; Hearon, B. F.; Boler, J. M.; Walter, F. L.; Boyer, M.; Wills, B. P. D.; Broekhuyse, H.; Buckley, R.; Watkins, B.; Sears, B. W.; Calfee, R. P.; Ekholm, C.; Fernandes, C. H.; Swigart, C.; Cassidy, C.; Wilson, C. J.; Bainbridge, L. C.; Wilson, C.; Eygendaal, D.; Goslings, J. C.; Schep, N.; Kloen, P.; Haverlag, R.

    2014-01-01

    It is our impression that many biomechanical studies invest substantial resources studying the obvious: that more and larger metal is stronger. The purpose of this study is to evaluate if a subset of biomechanical studies comparing fixation constructs just document common sense. Using a web-based

  11. Canada: Living with radiation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1995-01-01

    Canadians are exposed daily to a variety of naturally occurring radiation. Heat and light from the sun, are familiar examples. Radium and uranium are naturally occurring materials which have been found to emit radiation and so have been called radioactive. There are also various types of artificially produced forms of radiation that are employed routinely in modern living, such as radio and television waves and microwaves. X-rays, another common type of radiation, are widely used in medicine as are some man-made radioactive substances. These emit radiation just like naturally occurring radioactive materials. Surveys have shown that many people have a poor understanding of the risks associated with the activities of modern living. Exposure to ionizing radiation from radioactive materials is also considered by many persons to have a high risk, This booklet attempts to inform the readers about ionizing radiation, its uses and the risks associated with it, and to put these risks in perspective with the risks of other activities and practices. A range of topics from medical uses of radiation to emergency planning, from biological effects of radiation to nuclear power, each topic is explained to relate radiation to our everyday lives. 44 figs

  12. Canada: Living with radiation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1996-12-31

    Canadians are exposed daily to a variety of naturally occurring radiation. Heat and light from the sun, are familiar examples. Radium and uranium are naturally occurring materials which have been found to emit radiation and so have been called radioactive. There are also various types of artificially produced forms of radiation that are employed routinely in modern living, such as radio and television waves and microwaves. X-rays, another common type of radiation, are widely used in medicine as are some man-made radioactive substances. These emit radiation just like naturally occurring radioactive materials. Surveys have shown that many people have a poor understanding of the risks associated with the activities of modern living. Exposure to ionizing radiation from radioactive materials is also considered by many persons to have a high risk, This booklet attempts to inform the readers about ionizing radiation, its uses and the risks associated with it, and to put these risks in perspective with the risks of other activities and practices. A range of topics from medical uses of radiation to emergency planning, from biological effects of radiation to nuclear power, each topic is explained to relate radiation to our everyday lives. 44 figs.

  13. Psychosocial coping resources in elementary school-age children of divorce.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kurtz, L

    1994-10-01

    The psychosocial coping resources of elementary school-age children living in the sole custody of a divorced single parent were compared with those of their peers living with nondivorced parents. Children of divorced parents were found to have lower levels of self-efficacy, self-esteem, and social support, and less effectual coping styles. Contact with the noncustodial parent was found to have a positive influence on their attitudes toward divorce.

  14. Living the (codesign) lab

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Binder, Thomas; Brandt, Eva; Halse, Joachim

    2011-01-01

    Design research environments are becoming visible in many places, in universities, in design schools, in companies and in public organizations. What most of them have in common is a commitment to the exploration of the possible rather than the factual. In this paper we will discuss what define su...... that the laboratories of design research must have a consistent portfolio yet design researchers still have to mobilize and join forces with the many “living labs” of the everyday....

  15. Developing a Health and Wellbeing Platform in a Living Lab Setting : An Action Design Research Study

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Broers, W.J.W.; De Reuver, G.A.; Florez Atehuortua, L.; Guldemond, N.A.

    2015-01-01

    The world’s population is rapidly aging, which affects healthcare budgets, resources, pensions and social security systems. Although most older adults prefer to live independently in their own home as long as possible, smart living solutions to support elderly people at home did not reach mass

  16. Equations relating compacted and uncompacted live crown ratio for common tree species in the South

    Science.gov (United States)

    KaDonna C. Randolph

    2010-01-01

    Species-specific equations to predict uncompacted crown ratio (UNCR) from compacted live crown ratio (CCR), tree length, and stem diameter were developed for 24 species and 12 genera in the southern United States. Using data from the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis program, nonlinear regression was used to model UNCR with a logistic function. Model...

  17. Renewable Resources in SA

    CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

    Mushwana, C

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Renewable energy is derived form natural resources that are replenished at a faster rate than they are consumed, and thus cannot be depleted. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and some forms of biomass are common sources of renewable energy. Almost 90...

  18. An evaluation of the impact of reducing energy subsidies on living expenses of households

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Saboohi, Y.

    2001-01-01

    A policy of subsidizing energy has been pursued in the Islamic Republic of Iran to help the poor and to utilize the relative advantages of the country. But it has been realized that energy subsidy has led to market distortion and welfare loss. Hence, elimination of energy subsidy is considered as a crucial matter. Changes in energy policy are hindered by the uncertainty on the impact of reducing energy subsidy on the living expenses of population. In the present article the distribution of resources through energy subsidy is evaluated; and the direct and indirect effect of eliminating energy subsidies on the living expenses is estimated with the help of an analytical tool that has been developed. It is then concluded that additional financial resources obtained from reduction of energy subsidies could be allocated for compensating the decrease in purchasing power of households. The results of analysis reveal that more egalitarian distribution of resources and helping the poor could be achieved through implementation of a progressive policy of social security that is supported by financial resources available from elimination of energy subsidies. (author)

  19. How the Ethnography of Communication Provides Resources for Design

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leighter, James L.; Rudnick, Lisa; Edmonds, Theresa J.

    2013-01-01

    Designing solutions to social problems requires some degree of interpretive accountability to the sociocultural systems in which design solutions must live. Our case studies show how ethnography of communication research generates distinctive resources for design. (Contains 5 notes.)

  20. Genome Wide Identification, Phylogeny, and Expression of Aquaporin Genes in Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chuanju Dong

    Full Text Available Aquaporins (Aqps are integral membrane proteins that facilitate the transport of water and small solutes across cell membranes. Among vertebrate species, Aqps are highly conserved in both gene structure and amino acid sequence. These proteins are vital for maintaining water homeostasis in living organisms, especially for aquatic animals such as teleost fish. Studies on teleost Aqps are mainly limited to several model species with diploid genomes. Common carp, which has a tetraploidized genome, is one of the most common aquaculture species being adapted to a wide range of aquatic environments. The complete common carp genome has recently been released, providing us the possibility for gene evolution of aqp gene family after whole genome duplication.In this study, we identified a total of 37 aqp genes from common carp genome. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that most of aqps are highly conserved. Comparative analysis was performed across five typical vertebrate genomes. We found that almost all of the aqp genes in common carp were duplicated in the evolution of the gene family. We postulated that the expansion of the aqp gene family in common carp was the result of an additional whole genome duplication event and that the aqp gene family in other teleosts has been lost in their evolution history with the reason that the functions of genes are redundant and conservation. Expression patterns were assessed in various tissues, including brain, heart, spleen, liver, intestine, gill, muscle, and skin, which demonstrated the comprehensive expression profiles of aqp genes in the tetraploidized genome. Significant gene expression divergences have been observed, revealing substantial expression divergences or functional divergences in those duplicated aqp genes post the latest WGD event.To some extent, the gene families are also considered as a unique source for evolutionary studies. Moreover, the whole set of common carp aqp gene family provides an

  1. Forest Resource Management Plans: A Sustainability Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pile, Lauren S.; Watts, Christine M.; Straka, Thomas J.

    2012-01-01

    Forest Resource Management Plans is the capstone course in many forestry and natural resource management curricula. The management plans are developed by senior forestry students. Early management plans courses were commonly technical exercises, often performed on contrived forest "tracts" on university-owned or other public lands, with a goal of…

  2. Social resources and cognitive ageing across 30 years

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gow, Alan J.; Mortensen, Erik Lykke

    2016-01-01

    Background: to examine associations between social resources and cognitive ageing over 30 years. Methods: participants in the Glostrup 1914 Cohort, a year of birth sample, completed a standardarised battery of cognitive ability tests every 10 years from age 50 to 80, summarised as general cognitive...... a negative association. Marital status (at ages 50 and 60) and loneliness at age 70 were the only social resources associated with cognitive change; married individuals and those not feeling lonely experienced less cognitive decline. When the social resources showing significant associations were considered...... ability. Participants also provided information concerning a range of social resources, including marital status and living arrangements from age 50, and from age 70, details regarding social support, social contact and loneliness. Results: across the follow-up, participants were less likely to be married...

  3. Fourth Tennessee water resources symposium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sale, M.J.; Presley, P.M.

    1991-01-01

    The annual Tennessee Water Resources Symposium was initiated in 1988 as a means to bring together people with common interests in the state's important water-related resources at a technical, professional level. Initially the symposium was sponsored by the American Institute of Hydrology and called the Hydrology Symposium, but the Tennessee Section of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) has taken on the primary coordination role for the symposium over the last two years and the symposium name was changed in 1990 to water resources to emphasize a more inter-disciplinary theme. This year's symposium carries on the successful tradition of the last three years. Our goal is to promote communication and cooperation among Tennessee's water resources professionals: scientists, engineers, and researchers from federal, state, academic, and private institutions and organizations who have interests and responsibilities for the state's water resources. For these conference proceedings, individual papers are processed separately for the Energy Data Base

  4. resources 1..1

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    http://www.ias.ac.in/jgenet/OnlineResources/90/e34.pdf. Morinha F., Carvalho M., Ferro A., Guedes-Pinto H., Rodrigues R. and Bastos E. 2011 Molecular sexing and analysis of CHD1-Z and. CHD1-W sequence variations in wild common quail (Coturnix c. coturnix) and domesticated Japanese quail (Coturnix c. japonica).

  5. Policy Design for Competitive Retail Electric Institutions: Artificial Intelligence Representations for a Common Property Resource Approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pandit, Nitin S.

    The U.S. electricity industry is being restructured to increase competition. Although existing policies may lead to efficient wholesale institutions, designing policies for the retail level is more complex because of intricate interactions between individuals and quasi-monopolistic institutions. It is argued that Hirshman's ideas of "exit" and "voice" (Hirshman, 1970) provide powerful abstractions for design of retail institutions. While competition is a known mechanism of "exit," a novel design of the "voice" mechanism is demonstrated through an artificial intelligence (AI) based software process model. The process model of "voice" in retail institutions is designed within the economic context of electricity distribution -- a common property resource (CPR), characterized by technological uncertainty and path-dependency. First, it is argued that participant feedback (voice) has to be used effectively to manage the CPR. Further, it is noted that the decision process, of using participant feedback (voice) to incrementally manage uncertainty and path-dependencies, is non-monotonic because it requires the decision makers to often retract previously made assumptions and decisions. An AI based process model of "voice" is developed using an assumption-based truth maintenance system. The model can emulate the non-monotonic decision making process and therefore assist in decision support. Such a systematic framework is flexible, consistent, and easily reorganized as assumptions change. It can provide an effective, formal "voice" mechanism to the retail customers and improve institutional performance.

  6. Disentangling the effects of CO2 and short-lived climate forcer mitigation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Rogelj, J.; Schaeffer, M.; Meinshausen, M.; Shindell, D.T.; Hare, W.; Klimont, Z.; Velders, G.J.M.; Amann, M.; Schellnhuber, H.J.

    2014-01-01

    Anthropogenic global warming is driven by emissions of a wide variety of radiative forcers ranging from very short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs), like black carbon, to very long-lived, like CO2. These species are often released from common sources and are therefore intricately linked. However, for

  7. Online Biodiversity Resources - Principles for Usability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sophie Neale

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Online biodiversity portals and databases enabling access to large volumes of biological information represent a potentially extensive set of resources for a variety of user groups. However, in order for these resources to live up to their promise they need to be both useful and easy to use. We discuss a number of principles for designing systems for usability, examine how these have been applied to the development of online biodiversity resources and compare this with a portal project developed by the Astrophysics community. We highlight a lack of user involvement and formalised requirements analysis by biodiversity projects resulting in a poor understanding of both the users and their tasks. We suggest a change in the way large biodiversity portal projects are structured, that is by providing infrastructure and supporting user groups developing individual interfaces.

  8. Human Resource Management in Russia: Some Unwritten Rules

    OpenAIRE

    Denisova-Schmidt, Elena

    2011-01-01

    In spite of the fact that Western companies have been actively developing the Russian market over the last twenty years, they are still faced with the Soviet-era heritage in human resource management. This paper gives an overview of the common Soviet human resource practices of the past. Understanding traditional human resource practices in the Soviet Union prior to the end of communism will help practitioners to design human resource management systems for Russia more effic...

  9. Unequal Gain of Equal Resources across Racial Groups

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shervin Assari

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The health effects of economic resources (eg, education, employment, and living place and psychological assets (eg, self-efficacy, perceived control over life, anger control, and emotions are well-known. This article summarizes the results of a growing body of evidence documenting Blacks’ diminished return, defined as a systematically smaller health gain from economic resources and psychological assets for Blacks in comparison to Whites. Due to structural barriers that Blacks face in their daily lives, the very same resources and assets generate smaller health gain for Blacks compared to Whites. Even in the presence of equal access to resources and assets, such unequal health gain constantly generates a racial health gap between Blacks and Whites in the United States. In this paper, a number of public policies are recommended based on these findings. First and foremost, public policies should not merely focus on equalizing access to resources and assets, but also reduce the societal and structural barriers that hinder Blacks. Policy solutions should aim to reduce various manifestations of structural racism including but not limited to differential pay, residential segregation, lower quality of education, and crime in Black and urban communities. As income was not found to follow the same pattern demonstrated for other resources and assets (ie, income generated similar decline in risk of mortality for Whites and Blacks, policies that enforce equal income and increase minimum wage for marginalized populations are essential. Improving quality of education of youth and employability of young adults will enable Blacks to compete for high paying jobs. Policies that reduce racism and discrimination in the labor market are also needed. Without such policies, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate the sustained racial health gap in the United States.

  10. [Vulnerability of women in common-law marriage to becoming infected with HIV/AIDS: a study of social representations].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rodrigues, Larissa Silva Abreu; Paiva, Mirian Santos; de Oliveira, Jeane Freitas; da Nóbrega, Sheva Maia

    2012-04-01

    This article discusses the social representations of women living in common-law marriage in terms of their vulnerability to becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. Data were obtained through the free association of words, and consisted of an excerpt of a study founded on the Social Representations Theory developed with HIV-negative women living in the state capital and cities in the interior of Bahia. The correspondence factor analysis showed significance for the variables: origin, education level and time spent in common-law marriage. Their acceptance of marital affairs emerged as a vulnerability factor for respondents with one to five years spent in common-law marriage, living in cities in the interior. Women from the capital, with 6-10 years spent in common-law marriage, reported monogamy as a form of prevention. Women with a longer common-law marriage who had completed only a primary education reported feeling invulnerable, which was the opposite of those with one to five years in common-law marriage with a secondary education. Results show there is a need for more interventions aiming to denaturalize the socio-cultural coercions that generate representations and make women in common-law marriages more vulnerable to AIDS.

  11. When the enemy is the state: common lands management in northwest Spain (1850–1936

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    José A Serrano Alvarez

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available In the 19th century, the Spanish government, led by a liberal political project, put up for sale the common properties of villages, and deprived local village authorities of their capacities, powers and laws to manage common woodlands, which were passed to the Forestry Service. This paper, based on Ostrom’s hypothesis that state intervention can have negative consequences for the conservation of common resources, is a case study of what happened in the province of León. It is shown that, although the conservation of common resources was endangered because those who were more directly concerned with protecting them were deprived of the means to do so, peasant communities staunchly defended the commons by maintaining traditional practices and uses in their commons.

  12. How IDRC-funded research has improved lives in the developing ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    January: Public Health · February: Informed Policies · March: Improving Women's Lives · April: Livelihoodes and the Economy · May: Bridging the Digital Divide · June: Countries in Transition · July: Innovations in Research · August: Appropriate Technology · September: Managing Natural Resources · October: Food Security ...

  13. The hair of the common hare (Lepus europaeus Pall.) and of the common vole (Microtus arvalis Pall.) as indicator of the environmental pollution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paukert, J.

    1986-01-01

    Hairs of common hare (Lepus europaeus Pall.) and of common vole (Microtus arvalis Pall.) living in immission zones were investigated by INAA. Both the hare and the vole are almost exclusively herbivores; they consume relatively large amounts of contaminated food and reflect reliably the contamination degree of the respective ecosystem. The use of free-living animals for assessing environmental quality may complete effectively the information obtained by the examination of population. Though free-living animals lead a rather different way of existence it has been found that analyses of their hairs correlate very well with analyses of human hair. It may be expected that the changes in concentrations of heavy metals will manifest themselves earlier in animals than in men because the animals are strictly tied to local food sources. The hair samples of hares contained increased concentrations of Sm, La, Au, As, Se, Cr, Sc, Fe, Ce, Th and Co. The hairs of voles showed increased concentrations of Sm, La, Zn, As, Se, Cr, Sc, Fe, Sb, Ce, Cs and Co. A marked trend towards cumulation in hair was observed for the following elements: As, Se, Sc and Fe. The increase of their concentrations in the hairs of animals from the immission regions amounted to as much as 10 3 %. (author)

  14. Hospital admission planning to optimize major resources utilization under uncertainty

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dellaert, N.P.; Jeunet, J.

    2010-01-01

    Admission policies for elective inpatient services mainly result in the management of a single resource: the operating theatre as it is commonly considered as the most critical and expensive resource in a hospital. However, other bottleneck resources may lead to surgery cancellations, such as bed

  15. Common Threads: Teaching Immigration in Elementary Classrooms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McBee, Robin Haskell; Bone, Kristine; Mossop, Gail; Owens, Carrie

    1998-01-01

    Brings together ideas on teaching about immigration from a number of elementary-school teachers in New Jersey and summarizes common themes. Outlines three specific projects based on the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, family history, and children's fiction. Includes a brief list of children's literature and other teaching resources. (DSK)

  16. Living with Oil: Towards an Ethics of the Environment in the Niger ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Living with Oil: Towards an Ethics of the Environment in the Niger Delta. ... African Research Review ... the issues of resource allocation and the responsibility for both human and non-human components of nature are indeed wholly ethical.

  17. Data Resource Profile: The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arora, Vishal S; Karanikolos, Marina; Clair, Amy; Reeves, Aaron; Stuckler, David; McKee, Martin

    2015-04-01

    Social and economic policies are inextricably linked with population health outcomes in Europe, yet few datasets are able to fully explore and compare this relationship across European countries. The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey aims to address this gap using microdata on income, living conditions and health. EU-SILC contains both cross-sectional and longitudinal elements, with nationally representative samples of individuals 16 years and older in 28 European Union member states as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Data collection began in 2003 in Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg and Austria, with subsequent expansion across Europe. By 2011, all 28 EU member states, plus three others, were included in the dataset. Although EU-SILC is administered by Eurostat, the data are output-harmonized so that countries are required to collect specified data items but are free to determine sampling strategies for data collection purposes. EU-SILC covers approximately 500,000 European residents for its cross-sectional survey annually. Whereas aggregated data from EU-SILC are publicly available [http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/income-and-living-conditions/data/main-tables], microdata are only available to research organizations subject to approval by Eurostat. Please refer to [http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/microdata/eu_silc] for further information regarding microdata access. © The Author 2015; all rights reserved. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Epidemiological Association.

  18. Evaluation of sustainability by a population living near fossil fuel resources in Northwestern Greece.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vatalis, Konstantinos I

    2010-12-01

    The emergence of sustainability as a goal in the management of fossil fuel resources is a result of the growing global environmental concern, and highlights some of the issues expected to be significant in coming years. In order to secure social acceptance, the mining industry has to face these challenges by engaging its many different stakeholders and examining their sustainability concerns. For this reason a questionnaire was conducted involving a simple random sampling of inhabitants near an area rich in fossil fuel resources, in order to gather respondents' views on social, economic and environmental benefits. The study discusses new subnational findings on public attitudes to regional sustainability, based on a quantitative research design. The site of the study was the energy-rich Greek region of Kozani, Western Macedonia, one of the country's energy hubs. The paper examines the future perspectives of the area. The conclusions can form a useful framework for energy policy in the wider Balkan area, which contains important fossil fuel resources. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Exposure to Physical Activity Resources by Neighborhood Sociodemographic Characteristics in Copenhagen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Svastisalee, Chalida; Schipperijn, Jasper; Holstein, Bjørn Evald

    2012-01-01

    Background: To investigate socioeconomic patterning of physical activity resources in Copenhagen. Methods: We used multivariate logistic regression analysis to examine the association between physical activity-supportive resources (public open space (POS), cycling and walking paths, sports.......51; CI: 0.31-0.83) but more likely to have POS (OR = 1.40; CI: 1.15-1.70) and paths (OR = 1.52; CI: 1.25-1.85). Conclusions: Residents living in areas with high proportions of low education or young children are likely to have high exposure to physical activity resources. Exposure to physical activity...... resources in Copenhagen may not explain the inequalities in physical activity behavior. Further examination of exposure to built environment resources is warranted....

  20. On the social nature of personality : Effects of extraversion, agreeableness, and feedback about collective resource use on cooperation in a resource dilemma

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koole, S.L.; Jager, W.; van den Berg, A.E.; Vlek, C.A.J.; Hofstee, W.K.B.

    The present research investigated how individual differences in Extraversion and Agreeableness affect cooperation in an experimental resource dilemma. Manipulated feedback indicated either that the common resource was being wed at a sustainable rate or that it was being rapidly depleted. As

  1. Awakened Oscillations in Coupled Consumer-Resource Pairs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Almaz Mustafin

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The paper concerns two interacting consumer-resource pairs based on chemostat-like equations under the assumption that the dynamics of the resource is considerably slower than that of the consumer. The presence of two different time scales enables to carry out a fairly complete analysis of the problem. This is done by treating consumers and resources in the coupled system as fast-scale and slow-scale variables, respectively, and subsequently considering developments in phase planes of these variables, fast and slow, as if they are independent. When uncoupled, each pair has unique asymptotically stable steady state and no self-sustained oscillatory behavior (although damped oscillations about the equilibrium are admitted. When the consumer-resource pairs are weakly coupled through direct reciprocal inhibition of consumers, the whole system exhibits self-sustained relaxation oscillations with a period that can be significantly longer than intrinsic relaxation time of either pair. It is shown that the model equations adequately describe locally linked consumer-resource systems of quite different nature: living populations under interspecific interference competition and lasers coupled via their cavity losses.

  2. Commons, Piracy and the Crisis of Property

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    James Arvanitakis

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available This article takes the politicisation of copyright and file sharing as a starting point to discuss the concept of the commons and the construction of property. Empirically, the article draws on a series of interviews with Pirate Party members in Sweden, Australia, Germany, the UK and USA; placed in the theoretical framework of the commons. We argue that piracy, as an act and an ideology, interrogates common understandings of property as something self-evident, natural and uncontestable. Such constructions found liberal market ideology. The article has two broad aims: to outline the different phases of enclosure, from the physical commons, to the institutional and finally the cultural commons; and to discuss the way that piracy highlights the emergent crisis in private property rights, brought to the fore by the global financial crisis and ongoing privatization of public resources. We conclude by questioning what new modes of enclosure are emerging in a digital economy driven by excessive data mining and centralized streaming services.

  3. Modeling Common-Sense Decisions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zak, Michail

    This paper presents a methodology for efficient synthesis of dynamical model simulating a common-sense decision making process. The approach is based upon the extension of the physics' First Principles that includes behavior of living systems. The new architecture consists of motor dynamics simulating actual behavior of the object, and mental dynamics representing evolution of the corresponding knowledge-base and incorporating it in the form of information flows into the motor dynamics. The autonomy of the decision making process is achieved by a feedback from mental to motor dynamics. This feedback replaces unavailable external information by an internal knowledgebase stored in the mental model in the form of probability distributions.

  4. Mental health challenges among adolescents living with HIV.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vreeman, Rachel C; McCoy, Brittany M; Lee, Sonia

    2017-05-16

    Mental health is a critical and neglected global health challenge for adolescents infected with HIV. The prevalence of mental and behavioural health issues among HIV-infected adolescents may not be well understood or addressed as the world scales up HIV prevention and treatment for adolescents. The objective of this narrative review is to assess the current literature related to mental health challenges faced by adolescents living with HIV, including access to mental health services, the role of mental health challenges during transition from paediatric to adult care services and responsibilities, and the impact of mental health interventions. For each of the topics included in this review, individual searches were run using Medline and PubMed, accompanied by scans of bibliographies of relevant articles. The topics on which searches were conducted for HIV-infected adolescents include depression and anxiety, transition from paediatric to adult HIV care and its impact on adherence and mental health, HIV-related, mental health services and interventions, and the measurement of mental health problems. Articles were included if the focus was consistent with one of the identified topics, involved HIV-infected adolescents, and was published in English. Mental and behavioural health challenges are prevalent in HIV-infected adolescents, including in resource-limited settings where most of them live, and they impact all aspects of HIV prevention and treatment. Too little has been done to measure the impact of mental health challenges for adolescents living with HIV, to evaluate interventions to best sustain or improve the mental health of this population, or to create healthcare systems with personnel or resources to promote mental health. Mental health issues should be addressed proactively during adolescence for all HIV-infected youth. In addition, care systems need to pay greater attention to how mental health support is integrated into the care management for HIV

  5. The ′Adat′ institution and the Management of Grand Forest ′Herman Yohannes′ in Indonesian Timor: The Role of Design Principles for Sustainable Management of Common Pool Resources

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jacko A van Ast

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Local success stories of sustainable forest management can inspire scientists and decision-makers. This article analyses the traditional ′Adat′ institution that plays a role in the management of Grand Forest Park ′Herman Yohannes′, in the Western part of Timor where the Adat forest management regulation has been formally restored. The original set of design principles for sustainable management of common pool resources of Elinor Ostrom (1990 has been used in this study as an analytical framework for understanding the role of the Adat institution in respect to the forest. In the park, the local community applies Adat for protection and management of the forest that has been its home for centuries. It appears that Ostrom′s design principles can be identified in the current Adat institution and play a role in the sustainable management of the forest. Although many other variables can lead to success or failure of institutions, the original (internal design principles are still valuable as a practical tool for building institutions that are - under certain conditions - able to sustain common pool resources. The findings confirm the importance of traditional institutions in successful forest management. The study recommends that decision-makers take into account existing traditional management systems that have shown long term functionality.

  6. Economic Analysis of Social Common Capital

    Science.gov (United States)

    Uzawa, Hirofumi

    2005-06-01

    Social common capital provides members of society with those services and institutional arrangements that are crucial in maintaining human and cultural life. The term æsocial common capital' is comprised of three categories: natural capital, social infrastructure, and institutional capital. Natural capital consists of all natural environment and natural resources including the earth's atmosphere. Social infrastructure consists of roads, bridges, public transportation systems, electricity, and other public utilities. Institutional capital includes hospitals, educational institutions, judicial and police systems, public administrative services, financial and monetary institutions, and cultural capital. This book attempts to modify and extend the theoretical premises of orthodox economic theory to make them broad enough to analyze the economic implications of social common capital. It further aims to find the institutional arrangements and policy measures that will bring about the optimal state of affairs.

  7. Resources, mediators, and identities: Home literacy practices of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Everyday home literacy practices of bilingual students who are learning English as an Additional Language (EAL) is an under-explored topic in South Africa. In this qualitative case study, home literacy practices of these students are viewed as a resource that can enhance their literacy development, while affirming their lived ...

  8. AFRA-NEST: A Tool for Human Resource Development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Amanor, Edison; Akaho, E.H.K.; Serfor-Armah, Y.

    2014-01-01

    Conclusion: • Regional Networks could serve as a common platform to meet the needs for human resource development. • With AFRA-NEST, International cooperation would be strengthened. • Systematic integration and sharing of available nuclear training resources. • Cost of training future nuclear experts could drastically be reduced

  9. Identification of a common cyanobacterial symbiont associated with Azolla spp. through molecular and morphological characterization of free-living and symbiotic cyanobacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gebhardt, J S; Nierzwicki-Bauer, S A

    1991-01-01

    Symbiotically associated cyanobacteria from Azolla mexicana and Azolla pinnata were isolated and cultured in a free-living state. Morphological analyses revealed differences between the free-living isolates and their symbiotic counterparts, as did restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses with both single-copy glnA and rbcS gene probes and a multicopy psbA gene probe. RFLP analyses with Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120 nifD excision element probes, including an xisA gene probe, detected homologous sequences in DNA extracted from the free-living isolates. Sequences homologous to these probes were not detected in DNA from the symbiotically associated cyanobacteria. These analyses indicated that the isolates were not identical to the major cyanobacterial symbiont species residing in leaf cavities of Azolla spp. Nevertheless, striking similarities between several free-living isolates were observed. In every instance, the isolate from A. pinnata displayed banding patterns virtually identical to those of free-living cultures previously isolated from Azolla caroliniana and Azolla filiculoides. These results suggest the ubiquitous presence of a culturable minor cyanobacterial symbiont in at least three species of Azolla. Images PMID:1685078

  10. Stigma and social participation in Southern India: differences and commonalities among persons affected by leprosy and persons living with HIV/AIDS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevelink, S A M; van Brakel, W H; Augustine, V

    2011-12-01

    Stigma is a common phenomenon worldwide and infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and leprosy are often associated with high levels of stigma. Several studies have been conducted concerning the effects of stigma and the impact on social participation, but comparative studies are rare. The objective of this study was to identify differences and similarities between HIV/AIDS and leprosy-related stigma. From April till July 2009, 190 questionnaire-based interviews were conducted to assess the levels of internalized stigma (Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness scale), perceived stigma (Explanatory Model Interview Catalogue stigma scale) and social participation (Participation scale) in a cross-sectional sample of people affected by leprosy (PL) and people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA). Respondents were selected from several hospitals, charity projects and during home visits in Vellore district, Tamil Nadu. Our results showed that both PLHA (n = 95) and leprosy-affected respondents (n = 95) faced a substantial burden of internalized and perceived stigma, with the former reporting a significantly higher level of stigma. As a result, PLHA faced more frequent and also more severe participation restrictions than PL. Especially, restrictions in work-related areas were reported by the majority of the respondents. In conclusion, PLHA faced a significantly higher level of stigma and participation restriction than PL. However, the latter also reported a substantial burden of stigma and participation restrictions. The study suggests that it may be possible to develop joint interventions based on the commonalities found. More research is needed to define these more precisely and to test the effectiveness of such joint interventions in reducing stigma and improving social participation.

  11. Use of Drying Technologies for Resource Recovery from Solid Wastes and Brines

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wignarajah, Kanapathipillai; Alba, Ric; Fisher, John W.; Hogan, John A.; Polonsky, Alex

    2010-01-01

    Long term storage of unprocessed biological wastes and human wastes can present major health issues and a loss of potential resources. Space vehicles and planetary habitats are typically resource-scarce or resource-limited environments for long-term human habitation. To-date, most of the resources will need to be supplied from Earth, but this may not be possible for long duration human exploration. Based on present knowledge, there is only very limited in-situ resources on planetary habitats. Hence, the opportunity to "live off the land" in a planetary habitat is limited. However, if we assume that wastes generated by human explorers are viewed as resources, there is great potential to utilize and recycle them, thereby reducing the requirements for supply Earth and enabling the "live off the land" exploration scenario. Technologies used for the recovery of resources from wastes should be reliable, safe, easy to operate, fail-proof, modular, automated and preferably multifunctional in being capable of handling mixed solid and liquid wastes. For a lunar habitat, energy does not appear to be the major driving factor amongst the technologies studied. Instead, reliability appears to be more important[1] . This paper reports studies to date on drying technologies to remove water from solid wastes and brines. Experimental performance data obtained for recovery water from wastes and brine are presented. Simplicity of operation of hardware and energy efficiency are discussed. Some improvements and modifications to hardware were performed. Hopefully, this information will assist in future efforts in the "downselection" of technologies for recovery of water and resources from solid wastes and brines.

  12. Tool development to understand rural resource users' land use and ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    -) ..... is a proxy for soil fertility and water availability. The resource users .... in Montpellier (France), two sessions with conservationists in Ant- ananarivo and .... hood activities within the wetlands of the Alaotra, (ii) living close to Lake Alaotra ...

  13. Environment-Gene interaction in common complex diseases: New approaches

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    William A. Toscano, Jr.

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Approximately 100,000 different environmental chemicals that are in use as high production volume chemicals confront us in our daily lives. Many of the chemicals we encounter are persistent and have long half-lives in the environment and our bodies. These compounds are referred to as Persistent Organic Pollutants, or POPS. The total environment however is broader than just toxic pollutants. It includes social capital, social economic status, and other factors that are not commonly considered in traditional approaches to studying environment-human interactions. The mechanism of action of environmental agents in altering the human phenotype from health to disease is more complex than once thought. The focus in public health has shifted away from the study of single-gene rare diseases and has given way to the study of multifactorial complex diseases that are common in the population. To understand common complex diseases, we need teams of scientists from different fields working together with common aims. We review some approaches for studying the action of the environment by discussing use-inspired research, and transdisciplinary research approaches. The Genomic era has yielded new tools for study of gene-environment interactions, including genomics, epigenomics, and systems biology. We use environmentally-driven diabetes mellitus type two as an example of environmental epigenomics and disease. The aim of this review is to start the conversation of how the application of advances in biomedical science can be used to advance public health.

  14. Open Data: Creating Communities and Practices for a New Common

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Morelli, Nicola

    2018-01-01

    Open Data are increasingly seen as a new and very relevant resource, that can dramatically change the landscape of the services and infrastructure in urban environments. This opportunity is often conceptualized by defining open data as a new common. Open data however, are not necessarily a commons...... of practices that regulate and facilitate the use of open data. Communities and practices, the two elements that would turn open data into a common, are not emerging spontaneously; their emergence needs to be appropriately designed....

  15. Information preferences of people living with fibromyalgia – a survey of their information needs and preferences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lubna Daraz

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available A lack of understanding about fibromyalgia and how to live with it may undermine the foundations of self-management and may compromise quality of life. The purpose of this study was to determine the information needs and preferences pertinent to people living with fibromyalgia. A cross-sectional web-based survey was developed based on conceptual and qualitative work informing information needs. Recruitment took place through hospitals, clinics, physicians and fibromyalgia support groups across Canada. Descriptive statistics using SPSS and graphical representations were employed to summarize and represent data. A total of 442 respondents (93% female, mode age 51-65 participated in the survey. No statistical differences in information needs were found between males and females or education level. Respondents (74% frequently searched for information about fibromyalgia using a variety of resources including Internet (91%, doctors (75%, support groups (76%, and people with same condition (87%. Respondents expressed a strong need for information about symptoms (81%, implications (79%, treatments (87%, resources (85% and coping (79%. However, concerns were expressed about the reliability of information and majority (93% wanted information to be available online that is provided by healthcare providers or from reputable sources. Internet (48%, people with similar condition (35% and support groups (35% were perceived as useful resources for people living with fibromyalgia. Information resources need to be developed on the basis of both content and knowledge of the information needs of the target end-user. Healthcare providers and the Internet are expected to be reliable resources of information.

  16. Dynamics of living phytoplankton: Implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barbosa, A B [Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIMA), Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro (Portugal)], E-mail: abarbosa@ualg.pt

    2009-01-01

    Phytoplankton is the dominant primary producer in aquatic ecosystems and is considered a gauge of ecological condition and change. Some phytoplankton groups, namely diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores, produce morphological or chemical fossils that can be used for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. This study aims to review the processes that regulate dynamics in living phytoplankton and to highlight how this knowledge is used in paleoecological studies. The distribution patterns of phytoplankton in present-day aquatic ecosystems are shaped by the interplay between processes that regulate cell growth and cell death. Cell growth and cell death are regulated by the internal environment of phytoplankton (e.g., specific environmental tolerances, resource uptake properties, cell size, density and morphology, alternative nutritional strategies such as mixotrophy or N{sub 2} uptake, motility, intracellular storage capacities, grazing resistance properties), and by its external environment. The external environment includes variables dependent on the availability of resources (e.g., light intensity, concentration of CO{sub 2} and dissolved inorganic macronutrients and micronutrients, availability of living prey in case of mixotrophs) and variables independent of resources (e.g., temperature, salinity, turbulence, ultraviolet radiation, bioactive compounds, activity of grazers, viruses, and eukaryotic parasites). The importance of recently described loss processes, such as grazing by phagotrophic protists, viral lyses, and programmed cell death, is discussed in the context of its potential impact upon phytoplankton vertical fluxes. Examples of the use of different phytoplankton metrics (e.g. abundance, species composition, species morphology, and elemental composition) to infer contemporaneous as well as past environmental and ecological conditions are critically evaluated.

  17. Dynamics of living phytoplankton: Implications for paleoenvironmental reconstructions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barbosa, A B

    2009-01-01

    Phytoplankton is the dominant primary producer in aquatic ecosystems and is considered a gauge of ecological condition and change. Some phytoplankton groups, namely diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores, produce morphological or chemical fossils that can be used for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. This study aims to review the processes that regulate dynamics in living phytoplankton and to highlight how this knowledge is used in paleoecological studies. The distribution patterns of phytoplankton in present-day aquatic ecosystems are shaped by the interplay between processes that regulate cell growth and cell death. Cell growth and cell death are regulated by the internal environment of phytoplankton (e.g., specific environmental tolerances, resource uptake properties, cell size, density and morphology, alternative nutritional strategies such as mixotrophy or N 2 uptake, motility, intracellular storage capacities, grazing resistance properties), and by its external environment. The external environment includes variables dependent on the availability of resources (e.g., light intensity, concentration of CO 2 and dissolved inorganic macronutrients and micronutrients, availability of living prey in case of mixotrophs) and variables independent of resources (e.g., temperature, salinity, turbulence, ultraviolet radiation, bioactive compounds, activity of grazers, viruses, and eukaryotic parasites). The importance of recently described loss processes, such as grazing by phagotrophic protists, viral lyses, and programmed cell death, is discussed in the context of its potential impact upon phytoplankton vertical fluxes. Examples of the use of different phytoplankton metrics (e.g. abundance, species composition, species morphology, and elemental composition) to infer contemporaneous as well as past environmental and ecological conditions are critically evaluated.

  18. Religion and Environmental Education: Building on Common Ground

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hitzhusen, Gregory E.

    2006-01-01

    Environmental educators are beginning to consider how to incorporate religious resources into their curricula. Common concerns about religion pose a challenge for integration, but these concerns are manageable. Reflection on the precursors of environmental citizenship behaviour provides a framework for considering some of the ways that religious…

  19. Environmental impact of irrational and wasteful use of natural resources

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tolba, M K

    1978-01-01

    The author defines irrational use of resources as actions that are not based on existing knowledge of resources and wasteful use as actions using more resources than necessary. The three basic environmental impacts of irrational and wasteful uses are encroachment, exhaustion, and distribution effects. Man's contamination of the planet, which increased with population growth and technological advances that enable him to divert resources, can be altered by improving information and setting better criteria for the use of resources. The demand for resources can be lowered if life styles, prices, and income distribution patterns are modified to make resources use less wasteful and living conditions more equitable. The author reviews the present means of managing resources through minimum safety and social standards and notes that this approach leads to ownership and control problems. He suggests that criteria should ensure that all costs and benefits of a project be considered and that the project should promise a net positive change for better resource use. Several questions are suggested for use in assessing the comprehensiveness and relevancy of criteria.

  20. Food Insecurity and Common Mental Disorders among Ethiopian Youth: Structural Equation Modeling

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindstrom, David; Belachew, Tefera; Hadley, Craig; Lachat, Carl; Verstraeten, Roos; De Cock, Nathalie; Kolsteren, Patrick

    2016-01-01

    Background Although the consequences of food insecurity on physical health and nutritional status of youth living have been reported, its effect on their mental health remains less investigated in developing countries. The aim of this study was to examine the pathways through which food insecurity is associated with poor mental health status among youth living in Ethiopia. Methods We used data from Jimma Longitudinal Family Survey of Youth (JLFSY) collected in 2009/10. A total of 1,521 youth were included in the analysis. We measured food insecurity using a 5-items scale and common mental disorders using the 20-item Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20). Structural and generalized equation modeling using maximum likelihood estimation method was used to analyze the data. Results The prevalence of common mental disorders was 30.8% (95% CI: 28.6, 33.2). Food insecurity was independently associated with common mental disorders (β = 0.323, Pinsecurity on common mental disorders was direct and only 8.2% of their relationship was partially mediated by physical health. In addition, poor self-rated health (β = 0.285, Pinsecurity is directly associated with common mental disorders among youth in Ethiopia. Interventions that aim to improve mental health status of youth should consider strategies to improve access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food. PMID:27846283

  1. Genomic insight into the common carp (Cyprinus carpio genome by sequencing analysis of BAC-end sequences

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wang Jintu

    2011-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background Common carp is one of the most important aquaculture teleost fish in the world. Common carp and other closely related Cyprinidae species provide over 30% aquaculture production in the world. However, common carp genomic resources are still relatively underdeveloped. BAC end sequences (BES are important resources for genome research on BAC-anchored genetic marker development, linkage map and physical map integration, and whole genome sequence assembling and scaffolding. Result To develop such valuable resources in common carp (Cyprinus carpio, a total of 40,224 BAC clones were sequenced on both ends, generating 65,720 clean BES with an average read length of 647 bp after sequence processing, representing 42,522,168 bp or 2.5% of common carp genome. The first survey of common carp genome was conducted with various bioinformatics tools. The common carp genome contains over 17.3% of repetitive elements with GC content of 36.8% and 518 transposon ORFs. To identify and develop BAC-anchored microsatellite markers, a total of 13,581 microsatellites were detected from 10,355 BES. The coding region of 7,127 genes were recognized from 9,443 BES on 7,453 BACs, with 1,990 BACs have genes on both ends. To evaluate the similarity to the genome of closely related zebrafish, BES of common carp were aligned against zebrafish genome. A total of 39,335 BES of common carp have conserved homologs on zebrafish genome which demonstrated the high similarity between zebrafish and common carp genomes, indicating the feasibility of comparative mapping between zebrafish and common carp once we have physical map of common carp. Conclusion BAC end sequences are great resources for the first genome wide survey of common carp. The repetitive DNA was estimated to be approximate 28% of common carp genome, indicating the higher complexity of the genome. Comparative analysis had mapped around 40,000 BES to zebrafish genome and established over 3

  2. Genomic insight into the common carp (Cyprinus carpio) genome by sequencing analysis of BAC-end sequences

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-01-01

    Background Common carp is one of the most important aquaculture teleost fish in the world. Common carp and other closely related Cyprinidae species provide over 30% aquaculture production in the world. However, common carp genomic resources are still relatively underdeveloped. BAC end sequences (BES) are important resources for genome research on BAC-anchored genetic marker development, linkage map and physical map integration, and whole genome sequence assembling and scaffolding. Result To develop such valuable resources in common carp (Cyprinus carpio), a total of 40,224 BAC clones were sequenced on both ends, generating 65,720 clean BES with an average read length of 647 bp after sequence processing, representing 42,522,168 bp or 2.5% of common carp genome. The first survey of common carp genome was conducted with various bioinformatics tools. The common carp genome contains over 17.3% of repetitive elements with GC content of 36.8% and 518 transposon ORFs. To identify and develop BAC-anchored microsatellite markers, a total of 13,581 microsatellites were detected from 10,355 BES. The coding region of 7,127 genes were recognized from 9,443 BES on 7,453 BACs, with 1,990 BACs have genes on both ends. To evaluate the similarity to the genome of closely related zebrafish, BES of common carp were aligned against zebrafish genome. A total of 39,335 BES of common carp have conserved homologs on zebrafish genome which demonstrated the high similarity between zebrafish and common carp genomes, indicating the feasibility of comparative mapping between zebrafish and common carp once we have physical map of common carp. Conclusion BAC end sequences are great resources for the first genome wide survey of common carp. The repetitive DNA was estimated to be approximate 28% of common carp genome, indicating the higher complexity of the genome. Comparative analysis had mapped around 40,000 BES to zebrafish genome and established over 3,100 microsyntenies, covering over 50% of

  3. Living with Symptoms: A Qualitative Study of Black Adults with Advanced Cancer Living in Poverty.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yeager, Katherine A; Quest, Tammie E; Vena, Catherine; Sterk, Claire E

    2018-02-01

    Cancer is associated with disease-related and treatment-related symptoms. Little is known about the symptom experience of black individuals with advanced cancer especially those with limited financial resources. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the symptom experience of black adults with advanced cancer living in poverty. This qualitative descriptive study focused on the perspectives of the participants experiencing at least two symptoms related to cancer. A purposive sample of 27 individuals receiving care at a public hospital in a southeastern city participated in the study. Semi-structured audiotaped interviews were conducted by two research interviewers. Content analysis was used to develop themes to describe the symptom experience. Two main themes emerged in terms of the participants' symptom experiences: (1) "living in pain," which included the overwhelming experience of pain, both physical and emotional, and (2) "symptoms associated with functioning in everyday life." Participants frequently used the context of activities in their daily lives to explain symptoms, including the effect of symptoms on the activities of eating, moving and doing, and communicating. People with advanced cancer work to negotiate a high frequency of multiple distressful symptoms of severe-to-moderate severity. Information gained from this study can help guide research in symptom science and provide direction for clinicians working with this minority group. Copyright © 2017 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. All rights reserved.

  4. in_focus - Comangement of Natural Resources: Local Learning for ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    The developing world's poorest people live in marginal, often harsh rural environments. ... Co-Management of Natural Resources in Canada: A Review of Concepts and Case Studies ... He holds a doctorate in city and regional planning from the University of ... funding for the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.

  5. Maize Genetic Resources Collections – Utilizing a Treasure Trove

    Science.gov (United States)

    The maize genetic resource collection managed by the USDA-ARS's National Plant Germplasm System is heavily utilized by researchers and educators. A collection of landraces, inbred lines from public and private sector sources, synthetics and key populations, it serves both as a living snapshot of th...

  6. Intrinsically secure fast reactors for long-lived waste free and proliferation resistant nuclear power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Slessarev, Igor

    2008-01-01

    This paper provides description of a nuclear reactor concept aimed towards a radical safety enhancement, an increased proliferation resistance, as well as a realisation of a 'long-lived waste free' NP development. It emphasizes the achievement of considerable reduction ('by design') of residual actinides in the waste streams and of the most hazardous long-lived fission products. It allows to implement only small volume of repositories for the radioactive waste (mostly fission products) and to postpone the technically arduous problems of a large scale disposal of the long-lived wastes until the next millennium, i.e. up to the exhaustion of the fertile natural resources and/or the emergence of more effective technologies of nuclide separation/transmutation. A thorough incineration/transmutation of the wastes (residual actinides in the mixture with lanthanides as well as of the most hazardous fission products) under reactor neutron flux is proposed for their mass reduction. A gradual growth of NP park is necessary for increasing the NP park capacity for waste irradiation. This 'constraint' is not really limiting because it coincides with the permanently growing demands in energy production. The potential of long-lived waste reduction depends on the total fertile fuel resources and on NP growth rate. It was shown that the accumulated actinide long-lived radioactive masses will be reduced significantly: by factor in the range of 10 4 -10 8 in magnitude (compared with LWR once-through cycle) and by 10 2 -10 6 (compared with the ordinary fast reactor park). Thus, the total long-lived waste toxicity pollution source might be comparable with the 'burnt away' toxicity of the natural fertile feed stream. This is quite realistic taking into account the large fertile fuel (U/Th) world-wide resources which provide the NP growth for a sustained time. Along side with the radical intrinsic safety improvement, a further enhancement of core physics ('neutronics') is one of the

  7. Wind and solar resource data sets

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Clifton, Andrew; Hodge, Bri-Mathias; Draxl, Caroline

    2017-01-01

    The range of resource data sets spans from static cartography showing the mean annual wind speed or solar irradiance across a region to high temporal and high spatial resolution products that provide detailed information at a potential wind or solar energy facility. These data sets are used...... to support continental-scale, national, or regional renewable energy development; facilitate prospecting by developers; and enable grid integration studies. This review first provides an introduction to the wind and solar resource data sets, then provides an overview of the common methods used...... for their creation and validation. A brief history of wind and solar resource data sets is then presented, followed by areas for future research. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website....

  8. A comparison of two methods for estimating conifer live foliar moisture content

    Science.gov (United States)

    W. Matt Jolly; Ann M. Hadlow

    2012-01-01

    Foliar moisture content is an important factor regulating how wildland fires ignite in and spread through live fuels but moisture content determination methods are rarely standardised between studies. One such difference lies between the uses of rapid moisture analysers or drying ovens. Both of these methods are commonly used in live fuel research but they have never...

  9. Daily Living Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... About PPMD ❯ Mission & Impact Staff & Board News History Finance & Operations Partners Media Contact us Get Involved ❯ Donate Fundraise Attend Events Advocate Ways to Connect Join The Duchenne Registry Find Sponsorship ...

  10. The effect of resource quantity and resource stoichiometry on microbial carbon-use-efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleiblinger, K.M.; Hall, E.K.; Wanek, W.; Szukics, U.; Hämmerle, I.; Ellersdorfer, G.; Böck, S.; Strauss, J.; Sterflinger, K.; Richter, A.; Zechmeister-Boltenstern, S.

    2010-01-01

    The carbon-use-efficiency (CUE) of microorganisms is an important parameter in determining ecosystem-level carbon (C) cycling; however, little is known about how variance in resources affects microbial CUE. To elucidate how resource quantity and resource stoichiometry affect microbial CUE, we cultured four microorganisms - two fungi (Aspergillus nidulans and Trichoderma harzianum) and two bacteria (Pectobacterium carotovorum and Verrucomicrobium spinosum) - under 12 unique C, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) ratios. Whereas the CUE of A. nidulans was strongly affected by C, bacterial CUE was more strongly affected by mineral nutrients (N and P). Specifically, CUE in P. carotovorum was positively correlated with P, while CUE of V. spinosum primarily depended on N. This resulted in a positive relationship between fungal CUE and resource C : nutrient stoichiometry and a negative relationship between bacterial CUE and resource C : nutrient stoichiometry. The difference in the direction of the relationship between CUE and C : nutrient for fungi vs. bacteria was consistent with differences in biomass stoichiometry and suggested that fungi have a higher C demand than bacteria. These results suggest that the links between biomass stoichiometry, resource demand and CUE may provide a mechanism for commonly observed temporal and spatial patterns in microbial community structure and function in natural habitats.

  11. Hydropower vs. fisheries conservation: a test of institutional design principles for common-pool resource management in the lower Mekong basin social-ecological system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sergio Villamayor-Tomas

    2016-03-01

    Full Text Available New methods have emerged for testing common-pool resource theory in large-scale environmental governance contexts. We aim to contribute to that scholarship by assessing the relevance of Elinor Ostrom's design principles in the lower Mekong basin (LMB. The recent dam-building trend in the LMB has revealed a trade-off between hydropower development and the conservation of migratory fish species. The need to internalize or avoid the negative externalities of hydropower dam construction poses a new challenge to the LMB governance system and its main management body, the Mekong River Commission. Our objective was to explain the emergence of the trade-off and the capacity of the governance system to address it. Elinor Ostrom's design principles and other variables provided by the Socio-ecological Systems Meta-analysis Database were first coded with regard to secondary data and then tested against the capacity for cooperation of the LMB governance system. The lack of sanctioning despite a strong monitoring system, and the existence of fuzzy governance boundaries in the context of a powerful outsider like China, were particularly relevant to understanding the current cooperation stalemate in the basin. Other variables such as scientific knowledge, triggering events, markets, resource spatial heterogeneity, and heterogeneity of interests were also relevant.

  12. CovertCast: Using Live Streaming to Evade Internet Censorship

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    McPherson Richard

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available We design, implement, and evaluate CovertCast, a censorship circumvention system that broadcasts the content of popular websites in real-time, encrypted video streams on common live-streaming services such as YouTube. CovertCast does not require any modifications to the streaming service and employs the same protocols, servers, and streaming software as any other user of the service. Therefore, CovertCast cannot be distinguished from other live streams by IP address filtering or protocol fingerprinting, raising the bar for censors.

  13. Natural resource damage assessment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seddelmeyer, J.

    1991-01-01

    The assessment and collection of natural resource damages from petroleum and chemical companies unfortunate enough to have injured publicly owned natural resources is perhaps the most rapidly expanding area of environmental liability. The idea of recovering for injury to publicly owned natural resources is an extension of traditional common law tort concepts under which a person who negligently injures another or his property is called upon to compensate the injured party. Normally, once liability has been established, it is a fairly straightforward matter to calculate the various elements of loss, such as the cost to repair or replace damaged property, or medical expenses, and lost income. More difficult questions, such as the amount to be awarded for pain and suffering or emotional distress, are left to the jury, although courts limit the circumstances in which the jury is permitted to award such damages

  14. Politicising the study of sustainable living practices.

    OpenAIRE

    Denegri-Knott, Janice; Nixon, E.; Abraham, K.

    2017-01-01

    In studies of consumption, social theories of practice foreground the purchasing and use of resources not for intrinsic pleasure but rather in the routine accomplishment of “normal” ways of living. In this paper, we argue that a key strength of theories of practice lies in their ability to expose questions of power in the construction of normality, but that this has been largely overlooked. Since practice theories are leveraged in understanding urgent questions of climate change, we use ethno...

  15. Diversity of resource use and property rights in Tam Giang Lagoon, Vietnam

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ta Thi Thanh Huong

    2011-02-01

    Full Text Available Since the early 1990s, aquaculture has become the most important livelihood activity in Tam Giang Lagoon, Vietnam. The aquaculture boom has reduced the available water area for mobile gear fishers, polarized different user-groups, created resource conflicts, and increased pressures on the lagoon systems. Aquaculture in the lagoon is governed by both customary and legal rights. The objective of this paper is to explore the diversity of resource use and the complexity of property rights in one of the villages located in the lagoon. The paper emphasizes the linkages between changes in commons institutions and changes in resource use and property rights. First, the political and socio-economic changes in Vietnam are examined as well as how they have influenced traditional commons institutions and lagoon resource management in the village. Second, the linkages between common institutions and the diversity of property rights are analyzed. Particular attention is given to the analysis of different types of resource use associated with "bundle of rights" and the diversity of property rights regimes in the village.

  16. Transaction costs and community-based natural resource management in Nepal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adhikari, Bhim; Lovett, Jon C

    2006-01-01

    Transaction costs in community-based resource management are incurred by households attempting to enforce property right rules over common resources similar to those inherent in private property rights. Despite their importance, transaction costs of community-based management of common pool resources (CPRs) are often not incorporated into the economic analysis of participatory resource management. This paper examines the transaction costs incurred by forest users in community forestry (CF) based on a survey of 309 households belonging to eight different forest user groups (FUGs) in the mid hills of Nepal. The analysis reveals that the average 'poor' household incurred Nepalese rupees (NRS) 1265 in transaction costs annually, while wealthier 'rich' households incurred an average of NRS 2312 per year. Although richer households bear higher proportions of such costs, transaction costs for CF management as a percentage of resource appropriation costs are higher for poorer households (26%) than those of middle-wealth (24%) or rich households (14%). There are also village differences in the level of transaction costs. The results show that transaction costs are a major component of resource management costs and vary according to socio-economic status of resource users and characteristics of the community.

  17. Water resources assessment and prediction in China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    W. Guangsheng

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Water resources assessment in China, can be classified into three groups: (i comprehensive water resources assessment, (ii annual water resources assessment, and (iii industrial project water resources assessment. Comprehensive water resources assessment is the conventional assessment where the frequency distribution of water resources in basins or provincial regions are analyzed. For the annual water resources assessment, water resources of the last year in basins or provincial regions are usually assessed. For the industrial project water resources assessment, the water resources situation before the construction of industrial project has to be assessed. To address the climate and environmental changes, hydrological and statistical models are widely applied for studies on assessing water resources changes. For the water resources prediction in China usually the monthly runoff prediction is used. In most low flow seasons, the flow recession curve is commonly used as prediction method. In the humid regions, the rainfall-runoff ensemble prediction (ESP has been widely applied for the monthly runoff prediction. The conditional probability method for the monthly runoff prediction was also applied to assess next month runoff probability under a fixed initial condition.

  18. Water resources vulnerability assessment in the Adriatic Sea region: the case of Corfu Island.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kanakoudis, Vasilis; Tsitsifli, Stavroula; Papadopoulou, Anastasia; Cencur Curk, Barbara; Karleusa, Barbara

    2017-09-01

    Cross-border water resources management and protection is a complicated task to achieve, lacking a common methodological framework. Especially in the Adriatic region, water used for drinking water supply purposes pass from many different countries, turning its management into a hard task to achieve. During the DRINKADRIA project, a common methodological framework has been developed, for efficient and effective cross-border water supply and resources management, taking into consideration different resources types (surface and groundwater) emphasizing in drinking water supply intake. The common methodology for water resources management is based on four pillars: climate characteristics and climate change, water resources availability, quality, and security. The present paper assesses both present and future vulnerability of water resources in the Adriatic region, with special focus on Corfu Island, Greece. The results showed that climate change is expected to impact negatively on water resources availability while at the same time, water demand is expected to increase. Water quality problems will be intensified especially due to land use changes and salt water intrusion. The analysis identified areas where water resources are more vulnerable, allowing decision makers develop management strategies.

  19. Resource management as a key factor for sustainable urban planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Agudelo Vera, C.M.; Mels, A.R.; Keesman, K.J.; Rijnaarts, H.H.M.

    2011-01-01

    Due to fast urbanization and increasing living standards, the environmental sustainability of our global society becomes more and more questionable. In this historical review we investigate the role of resources management (RM) and urban planning (UP) and propose ways for integration in sustainable

  20. Overview of Self-Management Resources Used by Canadian Chronic Kidney Disease Clinics: A National Survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Donald, Maoliosa; Gil, Sarah; Kahlon, Bhavneet; Beanlands, Heather; Straus, Sharon; Herrington, Gwen; Manns, Braden; Hemmelgarn, Brenda R

    2018-01-01

    Chronic kidney disease (CKD) clinics across Canada provide tailored care for patients with CKD with an aim to slow progression and prevent complications. These clinics provide CKD self-management resources; however, there is limited information about what resources are being used by clinics. We undertook a survey of CKD clinics across Canada to identify self-management resources for adults aged 18 years and over with CKD categories 1 to 5 and not requiring dialysis or transplant. To identify and collate self-management resources (eg, strategies, tools, educational materials) used by CKD clinics across Canada for adults with CKD (categories 1 to 5, not requiring kidney replacement therapy). Self-administered, semistructured electronic survey. Canadian CKD clinics with previously identified contact information. We contacted 57 CKD English-speaking clinics and invited them to complete an online survey. The survey was available from October 2016 to January 2017 and consisted of 17 questions regarding the use and attributes of self-management resources including topic, delivery format, provider, target population, where the intervention was provided, and resource languages. Forty-four clinics (77%) completed the survey. The most common topic was modality education provided in print format, by nurses. The most frequently used resource was the Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC) Living With Kidney Disease manual. We also identified that the majority of resources were available in English, targeting both patients and caregivers in the outpatient setting. Our survey included Canadian adult CKD clinics, which may not be generalizability to other settings, such as care of people with CKD in primary care. Adult CKD clinics across Canada provide some similar resources, but also provide many different self-management resources. Even though some of the same resources were used by multiple clinics, the way they were provided them (ie, provider, location, delivery format) varied by

  1. The Waikato river: Changing properties of a living Māori ancestor

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Meijl, A.H.M. van

    2015-01-01

    In Māori cosmology, rivers and other waterways are conceptualised as living ancestors, who have their own life force and spiritual strength. The special status of rivers in Māori society also explains why they are sometimes separated from other Māori claims to natural resources of which they were

  2. DAMPAK PENERAPAN PRINSIP COMMON HERITAGE OF MANKIND DI KAWASAN DASAR LAUT DAN SAMUDERA YANG BERADA DI LUAR YURISDIKSI NASIONAL SERTA PEMANFAATAN SUMBER DAYA MINERAL DI KAWASAN TERSEBUT BERDASARKAN HUKUM INTERNASIONAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Davina Oktivana, S.H., M.H.

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Seabed and ocean floor known as the site where many non-biological sources found in the form of rocks rich in metals and minerals. Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982 regulates the of oceans and seas which are beyond national jurisdiction or referred to as the Region, as well as the utilization of non-living resources, especially mineral resources by applying the principle of common heritage of mankind. All activities related to the exploration and exploitation in the area governed by the International Seabed Authority (ISBA. ISBA have the authority to determine the country or which company will do mine, which location do mining, as well as the time period a set fee. In this article will explore how the legal aspects of the concept of benefit for mankind and benefit sharing in the application of the principle of common heritage of mankind against the Region and mineral resources contained therein, starting from its origins and developments that accompany it, then what about the other aspects that affect the application of the principle. The last, in this article will explain the impact on the protection of the marine environment arising from the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources. The results showed that the application of the principle of common heritage of mankind gave birth to the concept of benefit for mankind and benefit sharing in the exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the Area. The concept of benefit for mankind means all countries without exception have the same rights to perform activities in the Region, while benefit sharing is the sharing of benefits from countries miners were distributed evenly to the state or the status of least-developed countries are not locked (land-locked states. There are zoning regulation and differentiation of species in an effort to make conservation measures, as well as special arrangements regarding pollution of the marine environment by mining activities in the area

  3. Leading Change: Transitioning to the Common Core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brandt, Brian

    2012-01-01

    For many school districts in the United States, making the transition to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is proving to be a challenge at a time when they are already facing many obstacles, not the least of which is dwindling financial resources. A change of this magnitude cannot be made haphazardly; to be successful in its goal of helping…

  4. Subjective Theories of Indonesian Agronomy and Biology Teacher Students on Environmental Commons Dilemmas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koch, Sebastian; Barkmann, Jan; Sundawati, Leti; Bogeholz, Susanne

    2013-01-01

    Fostering the cognitive skills to analyse environmental "commons dilemmas" is an urgent task of environmental education globally. Commons dilemmas are characterised by structural incentives to overexploit a natural resource; their solution is particularly pressing in threatened biodiversity "hotspot" areas. Solutions to these…

  5. The Paradox of Liveness. From the Broadcast Media Era to the Social Media Era

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Es, K.F.

    2014-01-01

    Liveness has been a persistent and much-debated concept in media studies. It has long been associated with broadcast media, and television in particular. However, the emergence of social media, following the dot-com bubble bust, has brought new forms of liveness into effect. These challenge common

  6. Finding Common Ground: A Critical Review of Land Use and Resource Management Policies in Ontario, Canada and their Intersection with First Nations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fraser McLeod

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available This article provides an in-depth analysis of selective land use and resource management policies in the Province of Ontario, Canada. It examines their relative capacity to recognize the rights of First Nations and Aboriginal peoples and their treaty rights, as well as their embodiment of past Crown–First Nations relationships. An analytical framework was developed to evaluate the manifest and latent content of 337 provincial texts, including 32 provincial acts, 269 regulatory documents, 16 policy statements, and 5 provincial plans. This comprehensive document analysis classified and assessed how current provincial policies address First Nation issues and identified common trends and areas of improvement. The authors conclude that there is an immediate need for guidance on how provincial authorities can improve policy to make relationship-building a priority to enhance and sustain relationships between First Nations and other jurisdictions.

  7. Understanding Economic Abuse in the Lives of Survivors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Postmus, Judy L.; Plummer, Sara-Beth; McMahon, Sarah; Murshid, N. Shaanta; Kim, Mi Sung

    2012-01-01

    Intimate partner violence (IPV) often includes economic abuse as one tactic commonly used by an abuser; unfortunately, there is a lack of empirical understanding of economic abuse. Additionally, research is limited on the predictors of economic self-sufficiency in the lives of women experiencing IPV. This paper furthers our knowledge about…

  8. Emergency medicine educational resource use in Cape Town: modern or traditional?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kleynhans, A C; Oosthuizen, A H; van Hoving, D J

    2017-05-01

    The integration of online resources and social media into higher education and continued professional development is an increasingly common phenomenon. To describe the usage of various traditional and modern educational resources by members of the divisions of emergency medicine at Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town. Members affiliated with the divisions during 2014 were invited to participate in an online survey. Participants were given 8 weeks to complete the questionnaire; with weekly reminders until they responded or the deadline expired. Summary statistics were used to describe the variables. Eighty-seven divisional members completed the survey (69.6% response rate). The resources most preferred were textbooks (n=78, 89.7%), open access educational resources (n=77, 88.5%) and journals (n=76, 87.4%). Emergency medicine trainees (n=31, 92.1%) and respondents ≤30 years (n=17, 94.4%) were more inclined to use social media. International Emergency Medicine and Critical Care blogs are frequently being used by 71% of respondents. YouTube (35%) and podcasts (21%) were the most commonly used multimedia resources. Computers (desktop and laptop) were most frequently used to access educational resources except for social media where smart phones were preferred. The use of modern and electronic resources is relatively common, but traditional educational resources are still preferred. This study illustrates an opportunity for greater integration of online resources and social media in educational activities to enhance multimodal and self-directed learning. Specific training in the use of these resources and how to appraise them may further improve their utility. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

  9. Complexity for survival of livings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zak, Michail [Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Advance Computing Algorithms and IVHM Group, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)]. E-mail: Michail.Zak@jpl.nasa.gov

    2007-05-15

    A connection between survivability of livings and complexity of their behavior is established. New physical paradigms-exchange of information via reflections, and chain of abstractions-explaining and describing progressive evolution of complexity in living (active) systems are introduced. A biological origin of these paradigms is associated with a recently discovered mirror neuron that is able to learn by imitation. As a result, an active element possesses the self-nonself images and interacts with them creating the world of mental dynamics. Three fundamental types of complexity of mental dynamics that contribute to survivability are identified. Mathematical model of the corresponding active systems is described by coupled motor-mental dynamics represented by Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations, respectively, while the progressive evolution of complexity is provided by nonlinear evolution of probability density. Application of the proposed formalism to modeling common-sense-based decision-making process is discussed.

  10. Complexity for survival of livings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zak, Michail

    2007-01-01

    A connection between survivability of livings and complexity of their behavior is established. New physical paradigms-exchange of information via reflections, and chain of abstractions-explaining and describing progressive evolution of complexity in living (active) systems are introduced. A biological origin of these paradigms is associated with a recently discovered mirror neuron that is able to learn by imitation. As a result, an active element possesses the self-nonself images and interacts with them creating the world of mental dynamics. Three fundamental types of complexity of mental dynamics that contribute to survivability are identified. Mathematical model of the corresponding active systems is described by coupled motor-mental dynamics represented by Langevin and Fokker-Planck equations, respectively, while the progressive evolution of complexity is provided by nonlinear evolution of probability density. Application of the proposed formalism to modeling common-sense-based decision-making process is discussed

  11. Macroecology Meets Macroeconomics: Resource Scarcity and Global Sustainability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brown, James H; Burger, Joseph R; Burnside, William R; Chang, Michael; Davidson, Ana D; Fristoe, Trevor S; Hamilton, Marcus J; Hammond, Sean T; Kodric-Brown, Astrid; Mercado-Silva, Norman; Nekola, Jeffrey C; Okie, Jordan G

    2014-04-01

    The current economic paradigm, which is based on increasing human population, economic development, and standard of living, is no longer compatible with the biophysical limits of the finite Earth. Failure to recover from the economic crash of 2008 is not due just to inadequate fiscal and monetary policies. The continuing global crisis is also due to scarcity of critical resources. Our macroecological studies highlight the role in the economy of energy and natural resources: oil, gas, water, arable land, metals, rare earths, fertilizers, fisheries, and wood. As the modern industrial technological-informational economy expanded in recent decades, it grew by consuming the Earth's natural resources at unsustainable rates. Correlations between per capita GDP and per capita consumption of energy and other resources across nations and over time demonstrate how economic growth and development depend on "nature's capital". Decades-long trends of decreasing per capita consumption of multiple important commodities indicate that overexploitation has created an unsustainable bubble of population and economy.

  12. The new UN international framework classification for reserves/resources and its relation to uranium resource classification

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barthel, F.H.; Kelter, D.

    2001-01-01

    Resources traditionally are classified according to the degree of geological confidence and economic attractiveness. Various names are in use to describe nationally the different resource categories. Commonly, proven, probable or A+B are terms for the category RESERVES, meaning the recoverable portion of a resource under prevailing economic conditions. Since 1965 uranium resources are classified by the Nuclear Energy Agency of OECD and International Atomic Energy Agency using the terms Reasonably Assured Resources (RAR) and Estimated Additional Resources (EAR) in combination with cost categories. The definitions for RAR and EAR have been refined over the time and cost categories have been adapted according to market developments. For practical purposes a comparison of RAR and EAR with major national classification systems is provided in each of the NEA-IAEA publication on 'Uranium Resources Production and Demand' (Red Book). RAR of uranium are defined as quantities recoverable at given production costs with proven mining and processing technology, commonly RAR of the lowest cost category are referred to as Reserves. In 1992 the Committee on Energy - Working Party on Coal of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) started to develop a new scheme for resource classification under the coordination of one of the authors (Kelter). The main purpose was to create an instrument permitting the classification of reserves and resources on an internationally consistent and uniform basis using market economic criteria. In April 1997 the UN/ECE approved the new 'United Nations International Framework Classification for Reserves/Resources-Solid Fuels and Mineral Commodities' at its 50th Anniversary Session. The new classification will enable the incorporation of national systems into an unified framework in order to make them compatible and comparable. Assistance will be given to economies in transition in reassessing their deposits according to market economy criteria and

  13. Mineral Resources: Reserves, Peak Production and the Future

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lawrence D. Meinert

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available The adequacy of mineral resources in light of population growth and rising standards of living has been a concern since the time of Malthus (1798, but many studies erroneously forecast impending peak production or exhaustion because they confuse reserves with “all there is”. Reserves are formally defined as a subset of resources, and even current and potential resources are only a small subset of “all there is”. Peak production or exhaustion cannot be modeled accurately from reserves. Using copper as an example, identified resources are twice as large as the amount projected to be needed through 2050. Estimates of yet-to-be discovered copper resources are up to 40-times more than currently-identified resources, amounts that could last for many centuries. Thus, forecasts of imminent peak production due to resource exhaustion in the next 20–30 years are not valid. Short-term supply problems may arise, however, and supply-chain disruptions are possible at any time due to natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes or political complications. Needed to resolve these problems are education and exploration technology development, access to prospective terrain, better recycling and better accounting of externalities associated with production (pollution, loss of ecosystem services and water and energy use.

  14. Mind the gap: Exploring information gaps for the development of an online resource hub for epilepsy and depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crooks, Rachel E; Bell, Meaghan; Patten, Scott B; Wiebe, Samuel; Holroyd-Leduc, Jayna; Bulloch, Andrew G; Macrodimitris, Sophia; Mackie, Aaron; Sauro, Khara M; Federico, Paolo; Jetté, Nathalie

    2017-05-01

    Depression is common in epilepsy, and is often under-detected and under-treated. The motivation to create a depression eHub for persons with epilepsy is to connect them to the best available online resources to effectively manage their depression. The study sought to: 1) identify facilitators and barriers to accessing resources related to management of epilepsy and/or depression and 2) discuss gaps in available resources (free and in the public domain) and 3) identify suggestions for future content. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten patients with epilepsy and a history of depression. Using inductive analysis, two team members engaged in a process of textual open-coding utilizing a conventional content analysis approach whereby content was conceptually clustered based on the research questions. A phenomenological framework was applied to describe the phenomenon of online health resource access and utilization from the perspective of people with epilepsy. Facilitators to the use of online resources included information credibility, thoughtful organization, and accessibility of resources. Barriers included difficulties finding and piecing together information from many different sites. Patients reported difficulty having the motivation to seek out resources while depressed, which was compounded by feelings of stigma, social isolation, and lack of control. Gaps in resources included a lack of information about living with epilepsy day-to-day and resources for family and friends. Suggested content included information to raise awareness about epilepsy and depression; questionnaires to screen for symptoms of depression; stories of other patients with epilepsy and depression via video or moderated forums; current research and news; local community resources; and tools and strategies to manage depression in epilepsy. There is a gap in accessible resources for patients with epilepsy and depression as well as barriers that include epilepsy

  15. Sustainable exploitation and management of aquatic resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Neuenfeldt, Stefan; Köster, Fritz

    2014-01-01

    DTU Aqua conducts research, provides advice,educates at university level and contributes toinnovation in sustainable exploitation andmanagement of aquatic resources. The vision of DTUAqua is to enable ecologically and economicallysustainable exploitation of aquatic resourcesapplying an integrated...... management. Marineecosystems aims at understanding the mechanisms that govern the interaction between individuals,species and populations in an ecosystem enabling us to determine the stability and flexibility of theecosystem.Marine living resources looks at the sustainable utilization of fish and shellfish...... stocks.Ecosystem effects expands from the ecosystem approach to fisheries management to an integratedapproach where other human activities are taken into consideration. Fisheries management developsmethods, models and tools for predicting and evaluating the effects of management measures andregulations...

  16. Advance care planning: Beyond the living will.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Messinger-Rapport, Barbara J; Baum, Elizabeth E; Smith, Martin L

    2009-05-01

    For a variety of reasons, the most commonly used advance directive documents (eg, the living will) may not be very useful in many situations that older adults encounter. The durable power of attorney for health care is a more versatile document. We advocate focusing less on "signing away" certain interventions and more on clarifying the goals of care in the ambulatory setting.

  17. Lived religion in a plural society: a resource or liability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashok Kaul

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Recently there is a renewed academic interest in religion bringing it back on the global political agenda. Religion in the post modern global order is fast emerging as a new organizing principle in the face of multi-polarity, trans-nationality and sweeping pluralisation of peoples. Contrary to the secularist self believe, the modern has failed to take over the tradition including religion. Rather a logical opposite seems to be happening, questioning the very presumptions of the modernity project. The present paper is a narrative on this creative tension in the religious modern and post modern. The paper is crafted into four sections. First section seeks to pin down the genesis of “religious” in the search for social order and consciousness beyond the material world. Second section deals with the unfolding of enlightenment project and its manifest consequence with the birth of secularism master theory. Third section delves deep into the immediate Indian religious lived experiences under foreign rule up to the sweeping spell of globalisation. Fourth and last part of the essay makes a case for universality of a multicultural world and religious secularism.

  18. A comprehensive reference transcriptome resource for the common house spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nico Posnien

    Full Text Available Parasteatoda tepidariorum is an increasingly popular model for the study of spider development and the evolution of development more broadly. However, fully understanding the regulation and evolution of P. tepidariorum development in comparison to other animals requires a genomic perspective. Although research on P. tepidariorum has provided major new insights, gene analysis to date has been limited to candidate gene approaches. Furthermore, the few available EST collections are based on embryonic transcripts, which have not been systematically annotated and are unlikely to contain transcripts specific to post-embryonic stages of development. We therefore generated cDNA from pooled embryos representing all described embryonic stages, as well as post-embryonic stages including nymphs, larvae and adults, and using Illumina HiSeq technology obtained a total of 625,076,514 100-bp paired end reads. We combined these data with 24,360 ESTs available in GenBank, and 1,040,006 reads newly generated from 454 pyrosequencing of a mixed-stage embryo cDNA library. The combined sequence data were assembled using a custom de novo assembly strategy designed to optimize assembly product length, number of predicted transcripts, and proportion of raw reads incorporated into the assembly. The de novo assembly generated 446,427 contigs with an N50 of 1,875 bp. These sequences obtained 62,799 unique BLAST hits against the NCBI non-redundant protein data base, including putative orthologs to 8,917 Drosophila melanogaster genes based on best reciprocal BLAST hit identity compared with the D. melanogaster proteome. Finally, we explored the utility of the transcriptome for RNA-Seq studies, and showed that this resource can be used as a mapping scaffold to detect differential gene expression in different cDNA libraries. This resource will therefore provide a platform for future genomic, gene expression and functional approaches using P. tepidariorum.

  19. Institutions and Self-Governing Social Systems: Linking Reflexivity and Institutional Theories for Cybersecurity and Other Commons Governance Policies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Clark, Kenneth Norman

    2012-01-01

    A "commons" is the conventional term that describes a widely accessible and shared resource, such as an ocean, open rangeland, a public park, or public portions of the Internet, which is difficult to exclude or limit use once naturally provided or humanly produced. Ruin of a commons can result when individuals use the resource recklessly…

  20. Towards a Job Demands-Resources Health Model: Empirical Testing with Generalizable Indicators of Job Demands, Job Resources, and Comprehensive Health Outcomes

    OpenAIRE

    Brauchli, Rebecca; Jenny, Gregor J.; Füllemann, Désirée; Bauer, Georg F.

    2015-01-01

    Studies using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model commonly have a heterogeneous focus concerning the variables they investigate?selective job demands and resources as well as burnout and work engagement. The present study applies the rationale of the JD-R model to expand the relevant outcomes of job demands and job resources by linking the JD-R model to the logic of a generic health development framework predicting more broadly positive and negative health. The resulting JD-R health model ...

  1. The electric commons: A qualitative study of community accountability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Melville, Emilia; Christie, Ian; Burningham, Kate; Way, Celia; Hampshire, Phil

    2017-01-01

    This study explores how energy might be conceptualised as a commons, a resource owned and managed by a community with a system of rules for production and consumption. It tests one aspect of Elinor Ostrom's design principles for successful management of common pool resources: that there should be community accountability for individual consumption behaviour. This is explored through interviews with participants in a community demand response (DR) trial in an urban neighbourhood in the UK. Domestic DR can make a contribution to balancing electricity supply and demand. This relies on smart meters, which raise vertical (individual to large organisation) privacy concerns. Community and local approaches could motivate greater levels of DR than price signals alone. We found that acting as part of a community is motivating, a conclusion which supports local and community based roll out of smart meters. Mutually supportive, voluntary, and anonymous sharing of information was welcomed. However, mutual monitoring was seen as an invasion of horizontal (peer to peer) privacy. We conclude that the research agenda, which asks whether local commons-based governance of electricity systems could provide social and environmental benefits, is worth pursuing further. This needs a shift in regulatory barriers and ‘governance-system neutral’ innovation funding. - Highlights: • Commons framings can offer a new perspective on community based demand response. • Community accountability of users raises concerns about horizontal (within community) privacy. • Horizontal privacy is important to individuals, and should be protected. • Supportive sharing of information is welcomed. • Energy policy should enable institutional innovation including local commons based approaches.

  2. Copyright Resources for School Librarians

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Yvonne M.; Johnson, Nicole M.

    2016-01-01

    This article provides a collection of annotated citations for online resources of interest to school librarians; the focus is on copyright law, related information, and guidelines. The citations are organized by themes based on common issues. Copyright protects originally created works, including movies, recorded music performances, novels,…

  3. Aligning ERP and Business Strategy after going live

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Koch, Christian

    2004-01-01

    Steering enterprises with Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERP) is not only an issue of implementation and of “once and for all” aligning the ERP system with the strategy of the company, it is a long term exercise. This paper is about managing ERP systems after going live. It is argued...... that companies has to align the ERP systems with the strategy of the company and guidelines as to how this can be achieved is given....

  4. Online Resources Related to Children Affected by War, Terrorism, and Disaster

    Science.gov (United States)

    Masse, Anna L.

    2009-01-01

    This article provides a collection of websites related to children affected by war, terrorism, and disaster. These online resources are intended to provide information about various organizations and their efforts to improve the lives of children in crisis around the world.

  5. Thallium in spawn, juveniles, and adult common toads (Bufo bufo) living in the vicinity of a zinc-mining complex, Poland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dmowski, Krzysztof; Rossa, Monika; Kowalska, Joanna; Krasnodębska-Ostręga, Beata

    2015-01-01

    A breeding population of the common toad Bufo bufo living in the vicinity of a Zn-Pb smelting works in Bukowno, Poland was studied for the presence of thallium. Tl concentration was measured in the bottom sediments of the spawning pond, in the laid eggs, in juveniles after metamorphosis, and in the selected tissues of the adult individuals. A very high concentration of Tl was detected in the spawn (13.97 ± 8.90 mg/kg d.w.). In 50% of the spawn samples, levels exceeded 20 mgTl/kg d.w. The issue of maternal transfer of thallium from females to oocytes is discussed. Due to a significant accumulation of thallium, spawn analysis can be used as a sensitive indicator of the presence of this element in the environment and may replace more invasive methods that involve the killing of adult animals. In those regions that are abundant in Zn-Pb ores, the spawn of amphibians may be a very important source of thallium contamination for predators. From among all tissues of the Bukowno adult toads, the livers have shown the highest accumulation of thallium (mean 3.98 mg/kg d.w. and maximum value--18.63). For as many as 96.5% of livers, concentrations exceeded 1.0 mgTl/kg d.w. which is treated as indicative of poisoning.

  6. [Heat vulnerability assessment in Jinan city: a comparison between residents living in urban centers and urban-fringe areas].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Fangjun; Xin, Zheng; Zhou, Lin; Bai, Li; Wang, Yongming; Gu, Shaohua; Liu, Shouqin; Li, Mengmeng; Sang, Shaowei; Zhang, Ji; Liu, Qiyong

    2014-06-01

    To find out the differences in regional characteristics of heat vulnerability between people living in urban centers and urban-fringe areas of Jinan city so as to provide basis for the development of adaptation measures to heat. A cross-sectional survey on heat vulnerability was conducted in urban center and urban-fringe areas of Jinan city, using a self-designed questionnaire among 801 residents at the age of 16 years or older in August 2013. Data of 23 indicators related to heat vulnerability were collected and aggregated to 7 dimensions:health and medical insurance, social networks, heat perception and adaptive behavior, economic status, resources, living environment and working environment. An index score was calculated using a balanced weighted average approach for each dimension, ranging from 0 to 1, with the closer to 1 as greater vulnerability. The scores on heat perception and adaptive behavior, economic status, resources and working environment dimensions for urban-fringe areas were 0.42,0.63,0.55 and 0.62, statistically significantly higher than the urban center area of 0.41,0.51,0.26 and 0.41. Scores of living environment, social networks and health/medical insurance dimensions for urban center area were 0.57,0.49 and 0.31, which were all higher than the urban-fringe areas of 0.50,0.46 and 0.25, with differences statistically significant. Residents living in the urban center might be more vulnerable to heat in terms of living environment, health/medical insurance and social networks while residents living in the urban-fringe areas might more be vulnerable in terms of heat perception and adaptive behavior, economic status, life resources and working environment. These facts indicated that heat vulnerability among residents could be quite different, even at a fine geographic sale. We would thus suggest that intervention strategies on protecting people from heat, should be more targeted.

  7. Legal and Ethical Implications of Using Social Media in Human Resource Management

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lu Zhang

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Now more than ever we live in a society saturated with technology and media.  We are captured by the technology whirlwind such as the internet, instant messages, emails, and social media such as Twitter and Facebook.  Technologies not only are changing the way people live, work, and interact with each other but also the way companies conduct their businesses.  Social media no doubt is one of such technologies that enables companies to market their products and services in new and unique dimensions.  Beyond marketing, social media is also changing the way human resource professionals recruit and select employees.   Recruiting and selecting potential new employees using social media, is gaining popularity.  There are even software programs that capitalize on the information available on social media sites to assist human resources professionals to source, screen, and track job applicants.  Although there are many advantages in using social media networks to assist HR to select and filter job candidates, there are reasons for concerns.  In this paper, we’ll examine the legal and ethical consequences of using social media in the area of human resource management.   Keywords: Social Media, Facebook, Human Resources, Management.

  8. Re-living anatomy: medical student use of lecture capture

    OpenAIRE

    Diss, L; Sharp, A; Scott, F; Moore, L; Daniel, P; Memon, S; Smith, C

    2017-01-01

    Lecture capture resources have become common place within UK Higher education to enhance and support learning in addition to the tradition lecture. These resources can be particularly useful for medical students in anatomy teaching where time dedicated to anatomy within the curriculum has been reduced compared to previous generations(1).\\ud \\ud This study aimed to investigate how lecture capture aided student learning Qualitative feedback was also collected in view to further improve the reso...

  9. Students developing resources for students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pearce, Michael; Evans, Darrell

    2012-06-01

    The development of new technologies has provided medical education with the ability to enhance the student learning experience and meet the needs of changing curricula. Students quickly adapt to using multimedia learning resources, but these need to be well designed, learner-centred and interactive for students to become significantly engaged. One way to ensure that students become committed users and that resources become distinct elements of the learning cycle is to involve students in resource design and production. Such an approach enables resources to accommodate student needs and preferences, but also provides opportunities for them to develop their own teaching and training skills. The aim of the medical student research project was to design and produce an electronic resource that was focused on a particular anatomical region. The views of other medical students were used to decide what features were suitable for inclusion and the resulting package contained basic principles and clinical relevance, and used a variety of approaches such as images of cadaveric material, living anatomy movies and quizzes. The completed package was assessed using a survey matrix and found to compare well with commercially available products. Given the ever-diversifying arena of multimedia instruction and the ability of students to be fully conversant with technology, this project demonstrates that students are ideal participants and creators of multimedia resources. It is hoped that such an approach will help to further develop the skill base of students, but will also provide an avenue of developing packages that are student user friendly, and that are focused towards particular curricula requirements. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

  10. Wave-equation Migration Velocity Analysis Using Plane-wave Common Image Gathers

    KAUST Repository

    Guo, Bowen; Schuster, Gerard T.

    2017-01-01

    Wave-equation migration velocity analysis (WEMVA) based on subsurface-offset, angle domain or time-lag common image gathers (CIGs) requires significant computational and memory resources because it computes higher dimensional migration images

  11. Marine living thing processing system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Toyoshi, Takanori; Yanagisawa, Takao; Nakamura, Toshio; Ueda, Kiyokatsu; Terada, Takeshi.

    1994-01-01

    Marine living things collected upon cleaning of a seawater intake channel are sent to a solid/liquid separator. Discharged liquids containing separated sludges enter a coagulation/precipitation vessel. Condensed sludges precipitated in the vessel are sent to a dehydrator and converted into dehydrated cakes. On the other hand, supernatants discharged from the coagulation/precipitation vessel are sent to an ultra-filtration vessel and an active carbon vessel and then discharged to the sea area at improved the water quality. Further, the dehydrated cakes comprising condensed sluges are dried by a dryer, burnt in an incinerator and then processed as wastes. On the other hand, solid materials separated by the solid/liquid separator such as shells, are crushed finely by the crusher, then dried by an air stream dryer, baked in a high temperature baking furnace to form quick lime. The quick lime is sent to a digester and modified by hydration into slaked lime and it is shipped as slaked lime products. This can simplify the control for the operation and reduce the running cost. Further, resources of marine living (shells) can be utilized. (I.N.)

  12. Neuroepigenomics: Resources, Obstacles, and Opportunities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satterlee, John S; Beckel-Mitchener, Andrea; Little, Roger; Procaccini, Dena; Rutter, Joni L; Lossie, Amy C

    2015-01-01

    Long-lived post-mitotic cells, such as the majority of human neurons, must respond effectively to ongoing changes in neuronal stimulation or microenvironmental cues through transcriptional and epigenomic regulation of gene expression. The role of epigenomic regulation in neuronal function is of fundamental interest to the neuroscience community, as these types of studies have transformed our understanding of gene regulation in post-mitotic cells. This perspective article highlights many of the resources available to researchers interested in neuroepigenomic investigations and discusses some of the current obstacles and opportunities in neuroepigenomics.

  13. Neuroepigenomics: resources, obstacles, and opportunities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    John S. Satterlee

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Long-lived postmitotic cells, such as most human neurons, must respond effectively to ongoing changes in neuronal stimulation or microenvironmental cues through transcriptional and epigenomic regulation of gene expression. The role of epigenomic regulation in neuronal function is of fundamental interest to the neuroscience community, as these types of studies have transformed our understanding of gene regulation in postmitotic cells. This perspective article highlights many of the resources available to researchers interested in neuroepigenomic investigations and discusses some of the current obstacles and opportunities in neuroepigenomics.

  14. Perspectives on Living With Fibromyalgia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ann Gill Taylor

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Perceptions of people living with chronic illness change over time, contributing to health-related stress that necessitates coping skills. Paterson’s shifting perspectives model provides an explanation of chronically ill people’s variations in attention to their symptoms. In this qualitative study, 20 people with fibromyalgia living in a rural setting were interviewed in 2013 with the aim of gaining insight into their experiences and the meaning-making associated with their chronic condition. Analysis of the interview data categorized five recurrent, or common, themes: experiences of loss, feelings of fear and uncertainty, influence of stress, stigmatization of the disease, and coping through courage. Difficulties attendant to losses, distress, and stigma associated with this chronic condition led the participants to report poor health-related quality of life. The study findings can be useful across clinical settings to nurses and other health care providers in understanding those diagnosed with fibromyalgia and their care needs.

  15. Distributing Resources in a Construction Project

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Axel, Erik

    2015-01-01

    In the present paper the status of theories are discussed. It will be based on the fact that our understanding comes out of our common activity, and we will take point of departure in some empirical material from a construction project. We shall explore a conception of conflictual cooperation, wh...... that accordingly theories must change with the process, that they are dissolving in praxis. Keywords: arrangement, common cause, concept, conflictual cooperation, contradictions, design of square, praxis, procedure, resources, theory....

  16. Energy resources

    CERN Document Server

    Simon, Andrew L

    1975-01-01

    Energy Resources mainly focuses on energy, including its definition, historical perspective, sources, utilization, and conservation. This text first explains what energy is and what its uses are. This book then explains coal, oil, and natural gas, which are some of the common energy sources used by various industries. Other energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, water, and nuclear energy sources are also tackled. This text also looks into fusion energy and techniques of energy conversion. This book concludes by explaining the energy allocation and utilization crisis. This publ

  17. Common morality: comment on Beauchamp and Childress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rauprich, Oliver

    2008-01-01

    The notion of common morality plays a prominent role in some of the most influential theories of biomedical ethics. Here, I focus on Beauchamp and Childress's models in the fourth and fifth edition of Principles of Biomedical Ethics as well as on a revision that Beauchamp proposed in a recent article. Although there are significant differences in these works that require separate analysis, all include a role for common morality as starting point and normative framework for theory construction in combination with a coherence theory of moral justification. I defend to some extent the existence and empirical significance of common morality, as delineated by Beauchamp and Childress in different versions, but criticize its normative role. It is neither convincing as a moral foundation nor well compatible with a standard coherentist justification. I suggest that the authors should give up the foundational account for a more modest account of common morality as resource of well-established moral insights and experiences, which have proved generally valid but neither sufficient nor infallible. Beauchamp's latest proposal appears as a step in this direction; indeed, it may be the beginning of the end of his common-morality theory.

  18. Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribution of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland☆

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macintyre, Sally; Macdonald, Laura; Ellaway, Anne

    2008-01-01

    It has commonly been suggested that in modern cities individual or household deprivation (for example, low income or education) is amplified by area level deprivation (for example, lack of jobs or good schools), in ways which damage the health of the poorest and increase health inequalities. The aim of this study was to determine the location of a range of resources and exposures by deprivation in a UK city. We examined the location of 42 resources in Glasgow City, Scotland, in 2005–2006, by quintile of small area deprivation. Measures included number per 1000 population, network distance to nearest resource, and percentage of data zones containing at least one of each type of resource. Twelve resources had higher density in, and/or were closer to or more common in, more deprived neighbourhoods: public nurseries, public primary schools, police stations, pharmacies, credit unions, post offices, bus stops, bingo halls, public swimming pools, public sports centres, outdoor play areas, and vacant and derelict land/buildings. Sixteen had higher density in, and/or were closer to, or more common in, more affluent neighbourhoods: public secondary schools, private schools, banks, building societies, museums/art galleries, railway stations, subway stations, tennis courts, bowling greens, private health clubs, private swimming pools, colleges, A & E hospitals, parks, waste disposal sites, and tourist attractions. Private nurseries, Universities, fire stations, general, dental and ophthalmic practices, pawn brokers, ATMs, supermarkets, fast food chains, cafes, public libraries, golf courses, and cinemas showed no clear pattern by deprivation. Thus it appears that in the early 21st century access to resources does not always disadvantage poorer neighbourhoods in the UK. We conclude that we need to ensure that theories and policies are based on up-to-date and context-specific empirical evidence on the distribution of neighbourhood resources, and to engage in further research

  19. Do poorer people have poorer access to local resources and facilities? The distribution of local resources by area deprivation in Glasgow, Scotland.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macintyre, Sally; Macdonald, Laura; Ellaway, Anne

    2008-09-01

    It has commonly been suggested that in modern cities individual or household deprivation (for example, low income or education) is amplified by area level deprivation (for example, lack of jobs or good schools), in ways which damage the health of the poorest and increase health inequalities. The aim of this study was to determine the location of a range of resources and exposures by deprivation in a UK city. We examined the location of 42 resources in Glasgow City, Scotland, in 2005-2006, by quintile of small area deprivation. Measures included number per 1000 population, network distance to nearest resource, and percentage of data zones containing at least one of each type of resource. Twelve resources had higher density in, and/or were closer to or more common in, more deprived neighbourhoods: public nurseries, public primary schools, police stations, pharmacies, credit unions, post offices, bus stops, bingo halls, public swimming pools, public sports centres, outdoor play areas, and vacant and derelict land/buildings. Sixteen had higher density in, and/or were closer to, or more common in, more affluent neighbourhoods: public secondary schools, private schools, banks, building societies, museums/art galleries, railway stations, subway stations, tennis courts, bowling greens, private health clubs, private swimming pools, colleges, A & E hospitals, parks, waste disposal sites, and tourist attractions. Private nurseries, Universities, fire stations, general, dental and ophthalmic practices, pawn brokers, ATMs, supermarkets, fast food chains, cafes, public libraries, golf courses, and cinemas showed no clear pattern by deprivation. Thus it appears that in the early 21st century access to resources does not always disadvantage poorer neighbourhoods in the UK. We conclude that we need to ensure that theories and policies are based on up-to-date and context-specific empirical evidence on the distribution of neighbourhood resources, and to engage in further research on

  20. By-product mutualism with evolving common enemies.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Jaegher, Kris

    2017-05-07

    The common-enemy hypothesis of by-product mutualism states that organisms cooperate when it is in their individual interests to do so, with benefits for other organisms arising as a by-product; in particular, such cooperation is hypothesized to arise when organisms face the common enemy of a sufficiently adverse environment. In an evolutionary game where two defenders can cooperate to defend a common resource, this paper analyzes the common-enemy hypothesis when adversity is endogenous, in that an attacker sets the number of attacks. As a benchmark, we first consider exogenous adversity, where adversity is not subject to evolution. In this case, the common-enemy hypothesis is predicted when the degree of complementarity between defenders' defensive efforts is sufficiently low. When the degree of complementarity is high, the hypothesis is predicted only when cooperation costs are high; when cooperation costs are instead low, a competing hypothesis is predicted, where adversity discourages cooperation. Second, we consider the case of endogenous adversity. In this case, we continue to predict the competing hypothesis for a high degree of complementarity and low cooperation costs. The common-enemy hypothesis, however, only continues to be predicted for the lowest degrees of complementarity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  1. The Internet School of Medicine: use of electronic resources by medical trainees and the reliability of those resources.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Egle, Jonathan P; Smeenge, David M; Kassem, Kamal M; Mittal, Vijay K

    2015-01-01

    Electronic sources of medical information are plentiful, and numerous studies have demonstrated the use of the Internet by patients and the variable reliability of these sources. Studies have investigated neither the use of web-based resources by residents, nor the reliability of the information available on these websites. A web-based survey was distributed to surgical residents in Michigan and third- and fourth-year medical students at an American allopathic and osteopathic medical school and a Caribbean allopathic school regarding their preferred sources of medical information in various situations. A set of 254 queries simulating those faced by medical trainees on rounds, on a written examination, or during patient care was developed. The top 5 electronic resources cited by the trainees were evaluated for their ability to answer these questions accurately, using standard textbooks as the point of reference. The respondents reported a wide variety of overall preferred resources. Most of the 73 responding medical trainees favored textbooks or board review books for prolonged studying, but electronic resources are frequently used for quick studying, clinical decision-making questions, and medication queries. The most commonly used electronic resources were UpToDate, Google, Medscape, Wikipedia, and Epocrates. UpToDate and Epocrates had the highest percentage of correct answers (47%) and Wikipedia had the lowest (26%). Epocrates also had the highest percentage of wrong answers (30%), whereas Google had the lowest percentage (18%). All resources had a significant number of questions that they were unable to answer. Though hardcopy books have not been completely replaced by electronic resources, more than half of medical students and nearly half of residents prefer web-based sources of information. For quick questions and studying, both groups prefer Internet sources. However, the most commonly used electronic resources fail to answer clinical queries more than half

  2. Use of alternative plant resources by common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) in the semi-arid caatinga scrub forests of northeastern Brazil.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amora, Tacyana Duarte; Beltrão-Mendes, Raone; Ferrari, Stephen F

    2013-04-01

    The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is amply distributed in the Brazilian Northeast, but little is known of its ecology in the semi-arid Caatinga scrublands. The present study provides the first detailed data on the composition of the diet of C. jacchus in Caatinga ecosystems, derived from observations at four sites in the state of Sergipe. While exudate sources were gouged at all four sites in a manner typical of the species, fruit was the principal component of the diet at the main study site during most months, and a number of unusual items were eaten, including leaves, and the reproductive parts of cacti and bromeliads. These plants are rarely recorded in marmoset diets, but are common in caatinga habitats. Leaves were ingested during 5 of the 8 months monitored at the main study site, reaching 39.74% of the diet in 1 month, and appeared to be an alternative fallback food to plant exudates during periods when fruit was scarce. Three species of cactus provided both flowers and fruits, while the terrestrial bromeliad, Encholirium spectabile, provided nectar (30.81% of the diet in November). Approximately half of the plant species (and three families) identified in this study had not been recorded previously in the diet of Callithrix. Overall, the data suggest that, while the marmosets exploit the same types of plant foods in the Caatinga, the resource base is quite distinct from that of the Atlantic Forest. Other differences, such as relatively small groups and large home ranges, may contribute to divergent ecological patterns, which require more systematic investigation. Am. J. Primatol. 75:333-341, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Food preferences of the common tern, sterna hirundo (Linnaeus ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Seabirds are important in the dynamics of marine ecosystems because they recycle important biomass of lower trophic level organisms. Their faeces and carcasses provide important food sources for terrestrial and benthic scavengers. As a result of the abundance of food resources along the coast of Ghana, common terns ...

  4. Long-lived mitochondrial (Mit) mutants of Caenorhabditis elegans utilize a novel metabolism.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Butler, Jeffrey A; Ventura, Natascia; Johnson, Thomas E; Rea, Shane L

    2010-12-01

    The Caenorhabditis elegans mitochondrial (Mit) mutants have disrupted mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) functionality, yet, surprisingly, they are long lived. We have previously proposed that Mit mutants supplement their energy needs by exploiting alternate energy production pathways normally used by wild-type animals only when exposed to hypoxic conditions. We have also proposed that longevity in the Mit mutants arises as a property of their new metabolic state. If longevity does arise as a function of metabolic state, we would expect to find a common metabolic signature among these animals. To test these predictions, we established a novel approach monitoring the C. elegans exometabolism as a surrogate marker for internal metabolic events. Using HPLC-ultraviolet-based metabolomics and multivariate analyses, we show that long-lived clk-1(qm30) and isp-1(qm150) Mit mutants have a common metabolic profile that is distinct from that of aerobically cultured wild-type animals and, unexpectedly, wild-type animals cultured under severe oxygen deprivation. Moreover, we show that 2 short-lived mitochondrial ETC mutants, mev-1(kn1) and ucr-2.3(pk732), also share a common metabolic signature that is unique. We show that removal of soluble fumarate reductase unexpectedly increases health span in several genetically defined Mit mutants, identifying at least 1 alternate energy production pathway, malate dismutation, that is operative in these animals. Our study suggests long-lived, genetically specified Mit mutants employ a novel metabolism and that life span may well arise as a function of metabolic state.

  5. Position of the American Dietetic Association: dietetics professionals can implement practices to conserve natural resources and protect the environment. (Previously titled "natural resource conservation and waste management").

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-10-01

    It is the position of the American Dietetic Association to encourage environmentally responsible practices that conserve natural resources, minimize the quantity of waste that is generated, and have the least adverse affect on the health of all living organisms and the environment. All components of the food system, from farmer to consumer, are affected by the availability and cost of energy and the availability and quality of water. Outdoor and indoor air quality significantly impacts the health of all living organisms. Decisions that dietetics professionals make as practitioners and consumers can affect the quantity and type of solid waste generated. The demand for natural resources should be evaluated when selecting the most cost-effective, environmentally sensitive approach to the management of solid waste. Special precautions are needed when using and disposing of hazardous and medical waste to protect the safety of our clients and employees. This position paper provides information and resources for dietetics professionals for addressing the complexity of the environmental issue presented. Conservation strategies are identified that dietetics professionals can use in their worksites and at home. These conservation practices may reduce cost and decrease the environmental impact we have on our communities and the world.

  6. Climate change, poverty and agricultural resource degradation: a case study of district d.g. khan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Imran, M.; Bano, S.; Dawood, M.; Tarar, M.A.; Ali, A.

    2012-01-01

    Global development agendas are now being bonded with adaptation to climate change. Sustainable biodiversity and community adaptation to climate change are closely associated as depletion of natural resources adversely affects the living standard of people. Rapid climatic changes and intervention to regulate water resources in Indus delta of Pakistan have put the lives of millions of people residing near the Indus river belt at the stake of climate change. Therefore, this study was designed to inquire the socio-economic conditions of the people residing near the Indus river bank and the perceived impact of climate change on river belt agricultural resources specifically in district D. G. Khan. Based on primary data study employed univariate and bivariate analysis which suggested flood, wind storm and temperature as the significant climate change parameters affecting the land fertility, forest and fisheries. The Foster Greer and Thorbeck technique for calculating the poverty indicated that majority (82%) of population was below poverty line and most of them entirely depend on river belt agricultural resources which were found to be depleting due to rapid climate change. (author)

  7. Resource management as a key factor for sustainable urban planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Agudelo-Vera, Claudia M; Mels, Adriaan R; Keesman, Karel J; Rijnaarts, Huub H M

    2011-10-01

    Due to fast urbanization and increasing living standards, the environmental sustainability of our global society becomes more and more questionable. In this historical review we investigate the role of resources management (RM) and urban planning (UP) and propose ways for integration in sustainable development (SD). RM follows the principle of circular causation, and we reflect on to what extent RM has been an element for urban planning. Since the existence of the first settlements, a close relationship between RM, urbanization and technological development has been present. RM followed the demand for urban resources like water, energy, and food. In history, RM has been fostered by innovation and technology developments and has driven population growth and urbanization. Recent massive resource demand, especially in relation to energy and material flows, has altered natural ecosystems and has resulted in environmental degradation. UP has developed separately in response to different questions. UP followed the demand for improved living conditions, often associated to safety, good manufacturing and trading conditions and appropriate sanitation and waste management. In history UP has been a developing research area, especially since the industrial era and the related strong urbanization at the end of the 18th century. UP responded to new emerging problems in urban areas and became increasingly complex. Nowadays, UP has to address many objectives that are often conflicting, including, the urban sustainability. Our current urban un-sustainability is rooted in massive resource consumption and waste production beyond natural limits, and the absence of flows from waste to resources. Therefore, sustainable urban development requires integration of RM into UP. We propose new ways to this integration. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  8. A community living management program for people with disabilities who have moved out of nursing homes: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Danbi; Hammel, Joy; Wilson, Tom

    2015-06-23

    This study describes implementation and evaluation of the Stepping Stones program, a community living management program designed to assist people with disabilities to gain community living skills after moving out of nursing homes. Thirteen people with diverse disabilities participated in the 10-week Stepping Stones program. The participants attended two sessions a day every week, over a 5-week period. Interviewer-administered surveys were used at baseline and 1 week post-intervention to evaluate the impact of the program. Focus group interviews were conducted at 1 week post-intervention. Analyses of quantitative data demonstrated improved self-efficacy in community living management skills, with medium-to-high effect sizes. Participants reported improved sense of empowerment and confidence in finding resources and managing community living. They also reported high satisfaction with the program. Preliminary findings suggest that the Stepping Stones program is beneficial to the target group. The study indicates that application of social learning and self-efficacy theories is effective to empower and enable people with disabilities to manage their lives in the community. The Stepping Stones program may be provided as a risk management intervention after individuals' transition into the community. Implications for Rehabilitation Long-term institutionalization negatively influences people with disabilities' self-esteem, autonomy and ability to independently live in the community. Successful community living requires complex management involving the coordination of personal, social, resource and environmental factors. This study shows that programming on choice and control and community living skill development improved participants' confidence in managing community living.

  9. Certifying the commons: eco-certification, privatization, and collective action

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul Foley

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available We examine new dynamics of privatization and collective action in common pool resource situations facilitated by the nonstate multistakeholder institutions of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC, the global leader in sustainability certification for wild caught seafood. Through a review of the literature and two case studies of fishing cooperatives in Baja California Sur, Mexico and on Fogo Island in the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador (NL, we advance two interrelated arguments. First, certification and eco-labeling institutions privatize fisheries governance in largely unexamined ways through the injection of new forms of exclusive rights or privileges into common pool resource situations already complicated by access and property privileges, creating conditions for confusion and conflict as well as cooperation. Second, the MSC whole stock definition of sustainability places greater demands on certification clients for engaging in collective action by encouraging coordination over all social extractions from targeted fish stocks. Although rules encouraging collective action in common pool situations militate against the narrow private capture of certificate and eco-label rights, they also undermine the ability of small-scale and community-based fisheries that are embedded in larger unhealthy fishery contexts to acquire the right to the MSC stamp of sustainability. We conclude that MSC certification and eco-labeling create new institutions of private property rights and collective action, which can result in exclusionary practices, inclusionary collective action, or both. Much will depend on the specific common pool context and history of the fishery.

  10. Adult Education & Human Resource Development: Overlapping and Disparate Fields

    Science.gov (United States)

    Watkins, Karen E.; Marsick, Victoria J.

    2014-01-01

    Adult education and human resource development as fields of practice and study share some roots in common but have grown in different directions in their histories. Adult education's roots focused initially on citizenship for a democratic society, whereas human resource development's roots are in performance at work. While they have…

  11. BNFL and education open-quotes Living with Technologyclose quotes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bolter, H.E.

    1991-01-01

    Following upon a report to a House of Commons Select Committee, the Chairman and Chief Executive gave an undertaking to better inform young people about the Nuclear Industry. This lead to British Nuclear Fuels plc formulating a Corporate education policy and the adoption of a concept open-quotes Living with Technologyclose quotes which slots into the new National Curriculum for schools in England and Wales. One year into implementation, the initiative is proving a great success and at the present time the launch of open-quotes Living with Technologyclose quotes to the education world and public is underway

  12. Into the deep blue sea: Commons theory and international governance of Atlantic Bluefin Tuna

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Graham Epstein

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available The need to understand how to sustainably govern oceanic fisheries has become increasingly urgent as their contribution to global food security and livelihoods are threatened by declining stocks. Atlantic Bluefin Tuna (ABFT is a prominent example of the complexities associated with widely distributed oceanic resources, extending in this case to include much of the North-Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea. This distribution has led to limited attention from commons theorists that tend to focus on small-scale social ecological systems. Therefore in order to explore the fit between theories of the commons developed in small-scale systems, we apply the Social-Ecological Systems Meta-Analysis Database (SESMAD to systematically analyze ABFT governance over a 22 year period. The results, which focus on the effects of resource characteristics, broadly correspond to the expectations of commons theory. Interestingly, however, the addition of resource storage in the form of ABFT ranches appears to be contributing to unsustainable harvests. This stands in contrast to previous findings in the commons literature that storage tends to enhance prospects for sustainable governance. Therefore several alternative hypotheses are developed by comparing and contrasting attributes of ABFT and canal irrigation storage. These hypotheses may be used in future research to evaluate the conditions in which storage enhances prospects for sustainable governance.

  13. Star ark a living, self-sustaining spaceship

    CERN Document Server

    2017-01-01

    As space ventures have become more numerous, leading scientists and theorists have offered ways of building a living habitat in a hostile environment, taking an ‘ecosystems’ view of space colonization. The contributors to this volume take a radical multi-disciplinary view of the challenge of human space colonization through the ongoing project Persephone. This book fundamentally challenges prevalent ideas about sustainability and proposes a new approach to resource austerity and conservation and providing truly sustainable approaches that are life-promoting. Readers will learn the details of the plans for Persephone – a real project that is part of the company Icarus Interstellar’s plans for the design and engineering of a living interior on a worldship to be constructed in Earth’s orbit within 100 years. Although the timeframe itself is only an estimate, since it is contingent on many significant developments, including funding and technological advances, the industry consensus is that within 100 y...

  14. Sustainable natural resource use in rural China: Trends and policies

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Qu, F.; Kuyvenhoven, A.; Shi, X.; Heerink, N.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we provide an overview of recent trends in the availability and quality of land and water resources in rural China, and examine the common presumption that rural resources are rapidly degrading in China. Data based on consistent definitions and measurement methods that have recently

  15. Energy for lunar resource exploitation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Glaser, Peter E.

    1992-02-01

    Humanity stands at the threshold of exploiting the known lunar resources that have opened up with the access to space. America's role in the future exploitation of space, and specifically of lunar resources, may well determine the level of achievement in technology development and global economic competition. Space activities during the coming decades will significantly influence the events on Earth. The 'shifting of history's tectonic plates' is a process that will be hastened by the increasingly insistent demands for higher living standards of the exponentially growing global population. Key to the achievement of a peaceful world in the 21st century, will be the development of a mix of energy resources at a societally acceptable and affordable cost within a realistic planning horizon. This must be the theme for the globally applicable energy sources that are compatible with the Earth's ecology. It is in this context that lunar resources development should be a primary goal for science missions to the Moon, and for establishing an expanding human presence. The economic viability and commercial business potential of mining, extracting, manufacturing, and transporting lunar resource based materials to Earth, Earth orbits, and to undertake macroengineering projects on the Moon remains to be demonstrated. These extensive activities will be supportive of the realization of the potential of space energy sources for use on Earth. These may include generating electricity for use on Earth based on beaming power from Earth orbits and from the Moon to the Earth, and for the production of helium 3 as a fuel for advanced fusion reactors.

  16. From ER to E.T. how electromagnetic technologies are changing our lives

    CERN Document Server

    Bansal, Rajeev

    2017-01-01

    From ER to ET: How Electromagnetic Technologies Are Changing Our Lives explores electromagnetic wave theory including its founders, scientific underpinnings, ethical issues, and applications through history. Utilizing a format of short essays, this book explains in a balanced, and direct style how electromagnetic technologies are changing the world we live in and the future they may create for us. Quizzes at the end of each chapter provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the material. This book is a valuable resource for microwave engineers of varying levels of experience, and for instructors to motivate their students and add depth to their assignments.

  17. Hydrology and water law: what is their future common ground?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piper, Arthur M.; Thomas, Harold E.

    1957-01-01

    We live in an age of social and economic evolution--evolution so deep reaching and rapid it constitutes ad revolution in numerous fields of human concern. Long-standing concepts of what is appropriate and orderly face drastic modification if they are to survive. To this situation the principles of applied hydrology and the tenets of water law are no exceptions. Their common ground, incomplete in the past, becomes tenuous when projected into the future. To hydrologists it is common knowledge that the Nation has some trouble spots tin water supply, occasioned by burgeoning population, by standards of living that seem luxurious to other peoples if not to us, and by tremendously dynamic industry whose voracious thirst for water seems insatiable. Seldom is the "trouble" a mere lack of water in a quantity sufficient to serve all real needs; rather, water usually is available only part of the time, at greater-than-customary cost, or under competition among several potential uses. We can expect only that such spots will increase in number and in geographic reach.

  18. Current and future contraceptive options for women living with HIV.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patel, Rena C; Bukusi, Elizabeth A; Baeten, Jared M

    2018-01-01

    Among women living with HIV, half of the pregnancies are unintended. Effective contraception can prevent unintended pregnancies and consequently reduce maternal mortality and perinatal transmission of HIV. While contraceptive options available for all women also apply to women living with HIV, specific considerations exist to the use of contraception by women living with HIV. Areas covered: First, general principles guiding the use of contraception among women living with HIV are discussed, such as choice, method mix, relative effectiveness, and drug-drug interactions. Second, a detailed discussion of each contraceptive method and issues surrounding the use of that method, such as drug-drug interactions, follows. Third, future contraceptive options in advanced development for use by women or men are briefly discussed. Expert opinion: Contraceptive methods available to all women should also be accessible to women living with HIV. When the relative effectiveness of a contraceptive method is reduced, for example due to drug-drug interactions with antiretrovirals, the method should still be made available to women living with HIV with the appropriate information sharing and counseling. Greater research on various aspects of contraceptive use by women living with HIV and more comprehensive testing of co-administration of hormonal contraceptives and common medications used by these women are warranted.

  19. The conservation of forest genetic resources: case histories from Canada, Mexico, and the United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    F. Thomas Ledig; J. Jesús Vargas-Hernández; Kurt H. Johnsen

    1998-01-01

    The genetic codes of living organisms are natural resources no less than soil, air, and water. Genetic resources-from nucleotide sequences in DNA to selected genotypes, populations, and species-are the raw material in forestry: for breeders, for the forest manager who produces an economic crop, for society that reaps the environmental benefits provided by forests, and...

  20. RAMAN SPECTRAL ANALYSIS OF PERCHLORATE CONTAMINATION IN COMMONLY-USED FERTILIZERS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raman spectroscopy (RS) was used for qualitative and quantitative analysis of perchlorate (ClO4-1) in 30+ commonly-used fertilizers. Perchlorate contamination is emerging as an important environmental issue since its discovery in water resources that are widely used for drinking...

  1. Evaluation on equality and efficiency of health resources allocation and health services utilization in China.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Jian; Luo, Hongye

    2017-07-14

    China is faced with a daunting challenge to equality and efficiency in health resources allocation and health services utilization in the context of rapid economic growth. This study sought to evaluate the equality and efficiency of health resources allocation and health services utilization in China. Demographic, economic, and geographic area data was sourced from China Statistical Yearbook 2012-2016. Data related to health resources and health services was obtained from China Health Statistics Yearbook 2012-2016. Furthermore, we evaluated the equality of health resources allocation based on Gini coefficient. Concentration index was used to measure the equality in utilization of health services. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was employed to assess the efficiency of health resources allocation. From 2011 to 2015, the Gini coefficients for health resources by population ranged between 0.0644 and 0.1879, while the Gini coefficients for the resources by geographic area ranged from 0.6136 to 0.6568. Meanwhile, the concentration index values for health services utilization ranged from -0.0392 to 0.2110. Moreover, in 2015, 10 provinces (32.26%) were relatively efficient in terms of health resources allocation, while 7 provinces (22.58%) and 14 provinces (45.16%) were weakly efficient and inefficient, respectively. There exist distinct regional disparities in the distribution of health resources in China, which are mainly reflected in the geographic distribution of health resources. Furthermore, the people living in the eastern developed areas are more likely to use outpatient care, while the people living in western underdeveloped areas are more likely to use inpatient care. Moreover, the efficiency of health resources allocation in 21 provinces (67.74%) of China was low and needs to be improved. Thus, the government should pay more attention to the equality based on geographic area, guide patients to choose medical treatment rationally, and optimize the resource

  2. Show me the action and I will show you the commons!

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helene Finidori

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available What I am proposing here is not quite a more precise definition of the nature of the commons, related boundaries and access rights. Rather, starting from existing definitions, I address the topic from the perspective of experience: how commons are created or emerge from a process that intimately associates people and the participatory and mindful ways in which they produce, manage or care for their shared resources or assets. I also outline how the essential principles of a commons logic could help amplify the action of other sustainability and social change initiatives in a way that can be geared towards growing the commons as a whole.

  3. Costs of an immune challenge and terminal investment in a long-lived bird.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanssen, Sveinn Are

    2006-10-01

    An induced immune challenge can have two counteracting effects on an individual's reproductive investment. (1) The resource demand could increase to "fuel" the immunologic reaction, which in turn can lead to an adaptive decrease in investment in resource-costly activities, such as reproduction. One the other hand, (2) the individual could assume that the immune activity it experiences is indicative of a serious infection. The latter can lead to an adaptive increase in reproductive investment in response to the reduced prospects of survival and future reproduction, so called "terminal investment." To measure such life-history-related consequences of increased immune activity, one group of incubating female Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) was injected with a nonpathogenic antigen (sheep red blood cells, SRBC) while controls were injected with sterile saline. The eider is a long-lived sea-duck. Females, who incubate the eggs and care for young without assistance from the male, engage in facultative anorexia during incubation leading to a large reduction in body mass. Eiders can abandon their young to other females at the cost of reduced young survival. The immune challenge resulted in a larger mass loss, a prolonged incubation period, and reduced return rate, demonstrating both short- and long-term costs of immune challenge. Additionally, in response to what might have been interpreted as reduced survival chances in immune-challenged females, these females more often tended their own brood after hatching, despite having suffered higher costs during incubation.

  4. A Complexity-Aware Video Adaptation Mechanism for Live Streaming Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Chen Homer H

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available The paradigm shift of network design from performance-centric to constraint-centric has called for new signal processing techniques to deal with various aspects of resource-constrained communication and networking. In this paper, we consider the computational constraints of a multimedia communication system and propose a video adaptation mechanism for live video streaming of multiple channels. The video adaptation mechanism includes three salient features. First, it adjusts the computational resource of the streaming server block by block to provide a fine control of the encoding complexity. Second, as far as we know, it is the first mechanism to allocate the computational resource to multiple channels. Third, it utilizes a complexity-distortion model to determine the optimal coding parameter values to achieve global optimization. These techniques constitute the basic building blocks for a successful application of wireless and Internet video to digital home, surveillance, IPTV, and online games.

  5. A Complexity-Aware Video Adaptation Mechanism for Live Streaming Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Meng-Ting; Yao, Jason J.; Chen, Homer H.

    2007-12-01

    The paradigm shift of network design from performance-centric to constraint-centric has called for new signal processing techniques to deal with various aspects of resource-constrained communication and networking. In this paper, we consider the computational constraints of a multimedia communication system and propose a video adaptation mechanism for live video streaming of multiple channels. The video adaptation mechanism includes three salient features. First, it adjusts the computational resource of the streaming server block by block to provide a fine control of the encoding complexity. Second, as far as we know, it is the first mechanism to allocate the computational resource to multiple channels. Third, it utilizes a complexity-distortion model to determine the optimal coding parameter values to achieve global optimization. These techniques constitute the basic building blocks for a successful application of wireless and Internet video to digital home, surveillance, IPTV, and online games.

  6. Dynamic Extension of a Virtualized Cluster by using Cloud Resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oberst, Oliver; Hauth, Thomas; Kernert, David; Riedel, Stephan; Quast, Günter

    2012-01-01

    The specific requirements concerning the software environment within the HEP community constrain the choice of resource providers for the outsourcing of computing infrastructure. The use of virtualization in HPC clusters and in the context of cloud resources is therefore a subject of recent developments in scientific computing. The dynamic virtualization of worker nodes in common batch systems provided by ViBatch serves each user with a dynamically virtualized subset of worker nodes on a local cluster. Now it can be transparently extended by the use of common open source cloud interfaces like OpenNebula or Eucalyptus, launching a subset of the virtual worker nodes within the cloud. This paper demonstrates how a dynamically virtualized computing cluster is combined with cloud resources by attaching remotely started virtual worker nodes to the local batch system.

  7. Retrieving relevant and interesting tweets during live television broadcasts

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kaptein, R.; Zhu, Y.; Koot, G.; Redi, J.; Niamut, O.

    2015-01-01

    The use of social TV applications to enhance the experience of live event broadcasts has become an increasingly common practice. An event profile, defined as a set of keywords relevant to an event, can help to track messages related to these events on social networks. We propose an event profiler

  8. A general consumer-resource population model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lafferty, Kevin D.; DeLeo, Giulio; Briggs, Cheryl J.; Dobson, Andrew P.; Gross, Thilo; Kuris, Armand M.

    2015-01-01

    Food-web dynamics arise from predator-prey, parasite-host, and herbivore-plant interactions. Models for such interactions include up to three consumer activity states (questing, attacking, consuming) and up to four resource response states (susceptible, exposed, ingested, resistant). Articulating these states into a general model allows for dissecting, comparing, and deriving consumer-resource models. We specify this general model for 11 generic consumer strategies that group mathematically into predators, parasites, and micropredators and then derive conditions for consumer success, including a universal saturating functional response. We further show how to use this framework to create simple models with a common mathematical lineage and transparent assumptions. Underlying assumptions, missing elements, and composite parameters are revealed when classic consumer-resource models are derived from the general model.

  9. Study benefit value of utilization water resources for energy and sustainable environment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Juniah, Restu; Sastradinata, Marwan

    2017-11-01

    Referring to the concept of sustainable development, the environment is said to be sustainable if the fulfillment of three pillars of development that is economic, social and ecological or the environment itself. The environment can sustained in the principle of ecology or basic principles of environmental science, when the three environmental components, namely the natural environment, the artificial environment (the built environment) and the social environment can be aligned for sustainability. The natural environment in this study is the water resources, the artificial environment is micro hydroelectric power generation (MHPG), and the social environment is the community living around the MHPG. The existence of MHPG is intended for the sustainability of special electrical energy for areas not yet reached by electricity derived from the state electricity company (SEC). The utilization of MHPG Singalaga in South Ogan Komering Ulu (OKUS) district is not only intended for economic, ecological, and social sustainability in Southern OKU district especially those who live in Singalaga Village, Kisam Tinggi District. This paper discusses the economic, ecological and social benefits of water resources utilization in Southern OKU District for MHPG Singalaga. The direct economic benefits that arise for people living around MHPG Singalaga is the cost incurred by the community for the use of electricity is less than if the community uses electricity coming from outside the MHPG. The cost to society in the form of dues amounting to IDR 15,000 a month / household. Social benefits with the absorption of manpower to manage the MHPG is chairman, secretary and 3 members, while the ecological benefits of water resources and sustainable energy as well as the community while maintaining the natural vegetation that is located around the MHPG for the continuity of water resources.

  10. CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DAVIS, M.

    2005-04-01

    The Cultural Resource Management Plan (CRMP) for Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) provides an organized guide that describes or references all facets and interrelationships of cultural resources at BNL. This document specifically follows, where applicable, the format of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Environmental Guidelines for Development of Cultural Resource Management Plans, DOE G 450.1-3 (9-22-04[m1]). Management strategies included within this CRMP are designed to adequately identify the cultural resources that BNL and DOE consider significant and to acknowledge associated management actions. A principal objective of the CRMP is to reduce the need for additional regulatory documents and to serve as the basis for a formal agreement between the DOE and the New York State Historic Preservation Officer (NYSHPO). The BNL CRMP is designed to be a ''living document.'' Each section includes identified gaps in the management plan, with proposed goals and actions for addressing each gap. The plan will be periodically revised to incorporate new documentation.

  11. Strategic Coupling Based on Natural Resources

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hauge, Mads Martinus

    The topic of this thesis is the resourced-based industrialization of the Mekong River Delta (MRD) Region of Vietnam. It shows how a region is linked with the world market and how settlements and living conditions are being transformed as part of a globalized regional development. A modular theory......-building approach rooted in the Global Production Network (GPN) framework constitutes the analytical approach to the thesis, providing pertinent conceptualizations to explore and discuss how a globalized regional development unfolds. The main theoretical concept of the thesis is that of strategic coupling......, an established concept within the GPN framework that explores and explains how local assets are molded to complement the needs of the global market. However, existing applications of the notion of strategic coupling do not cover the situation in which a resource-based economy is coupled with the world market...

  12. Web-based tools from AHRQ's National Resource Center.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cusack, Caitlin M; Shah, Sapna

    2008-11-06

    The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has made an investment of over $216 million in research around health information technology (health IT). As part of their investment, AHRQ has developed the National Resource Center for Health IT (NRC) which includes a public domain Web site. New content for the web site, such as white papers, toolkits, lessons from the health IT portfolio and web-based tools, is developed as needs are identified. Among the tools developed by the NRC are the Compendium of Surveys and the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Resources. The Compendium of Surveys is a searchable repository of health IT evaluation surveys made available for public use. The CDS Resources contains content which may be used to develop clinical decision support tools, such as rules, reminders and templates. This live demonstration will show the access, use, and content of both these freely available web-based tools.

  13. Small mammals of the Mongolian mountain steppe region near Erdensant: insights from live-trapping and bird pellet remains.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joanne L. Isaac

    2005-12-01

    Full Text Available Relatively little is known of the distribution, abundance and ecology of small mammals in Mongolia and as a result there is scant knowledge of the effects of environmental and anthropogenic factors on small mammal populations. The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of small mammals in mountain steppe habitat from live-trapping and analysis of mammal remains from raptor pellets and below nests. During live-trapping, root voles ( Microtus oeconemus were the most commonly caught species accounting for 47.5 % of captures, striped hamsters ( Cricetulus barabensis and pika ( Ochotona hyperborea accounted for 30 % and 22.5 % of captures respectively. Temperature influenced trapping success, with small mammals appearing to avoid being active at temperatures over 20 ̊C. The three species caught on the trapping grid appeared to avoid competition for resources through both temporal and spatial differences in the use of available habitat. Mammals identified from raptor pellets and other remains included the grey hamster ( Cricatulus migratorius , Siberian marmot ( Marmota sibirica , red fox ( Vulpes vulpes , long-tailed souslik ( Citellus undulatus and the Daurian mole ( Myospalax aspalax. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance to the conservation of mammals in Mongolia and their co-existence with livestock and humans.

  14. Understanding knowledge as a commons from theory to practice

    CERN Document Server

    Ostrom, Elinor

    2011-01-01

    Looking at knowledge as a shared resource: experts discuss how to define, protect, and build the knowledge commons in the digital age. Knowledge in digital form offers unprecedented access to information through the Internet but at the same time is subject to ever-greater restrictions through intellectual property legislation, overpatenting, licensing, overpricing, and lack of preservation. Looking at knowledge as a commons―as a shared resource―allows us to understand both its limitless possibilities and what threatens it. In Understanding Knowledge as a Commons, experts from a range of disciplines discuss the knowledge commons in the digital era―how to conceptualize it, protect it, and build it. Contributors consider the concept of the commons historically and offer an analytical framework for understanding knowledge as a shared social-ecological system. They look at ways to guard against enclosure of the knowledge commons, considering, among other topics, the role of research libraries, the advantage...

  15. Geographic Variations in Cost of Living: Associations with Family and Child Well-Being

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Nina C.; Mistry, Rashmita S.

    2013-01-01

    The effects of geographic variations in cost of living and family income on children's academic achievement and social competence in first grade (mean age = 86.9 months) were examined, mediated through material hardship, parental investments, family stress, and school resources. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten…

  16. Resourcing Future Generations - Challenges for geoscience: a new IUGS initiative

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oberhänsli, Roland; Lambert, Ian

    2014-05-01

    In a world with rapidly increasing population and technological development new space based remote sensing tools allowed for new discoveries and production of water, energy- and mineral-resources, including minerals, soils and construction materials. This has impact on politics, socio-economic development and thus calls for a strong involvement of geosciences because one of humanities biggest challenges will be, to rise living standards particularly in less developed countries. Any growth will lead to an increase of demand for natural resources. But especially for readily available mineral resources supply appears to be limited. Particularly demand for so called high-tech commodities - platinum group or rare earth elements - increased. This happened often faster than new discoveries were made. All this, while areas available for exploration decreased as the need for urban and agricultural use increased. Despite strong efforts in increasing efficiency of recycling, shortage in some commodities has to be expected. A major concern is that resources are not distributed evenly on our planet. Thus supplies depend on political stability, socio-economic standards and pricing. In the light of these statements IUGS is scoping a new initiative, Resourcing Future Generations (RFG), which is predicated on the fact that mining will continue to be an essential activity to meet the needs of future generations. RFG is aimed at identifying and addressing key challenges involved in securing natural resources to meet global needs post-2030. We consider that mineral resources should be the initial focus, but energy, soils, water resources and land use should also be covered. Addressing the multi-generational needs for mineral and other natural resources requires data, research and actions under four general themes: 1. Comprehensive evaluation and quantification of 21st century supply and demand. 2. Enhanced understanding of subsurface as it relates to mineral (energy and groundwater

  17. SatisFactory Common Information Data Exchange Model

    OpenAIRE

    CERTH

    2016-01-01

    This deliverable defines the Common Information Data Exchange Model (CIDEM). The aim of CIDEM is to provide a model of information elements (e.g. concepts, even, relations, interfaces) used for information exchange between components as well as for modelling work performed by other tasks (e.g. knowledge models to support human resources optimization). The CIDEM definition is considered as a shared vocabulary that enables to address the information needs for the SatisFactory framework components.

  18. HOKES/POKES : Light-weight resource sharing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bos, Herbert; Samwel, Bart

    2003-01-01

    In this paper, we explain mechanisms for providing embedded network processors and other low-level programming environments with light-weight support for safe resource sharing. The solution consists of a host part, known as HOKES, and a network processor part, known as POKES. As common operating

  19. Perceived Family Resources Based on Number of Members with ADHD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corwin, Melinda; Mulsow, Miriam; Feng, Du

    2012-01-01

    Objective: This study examines how the number of family members with ADHD affects other family members' perceived resources. Method: A total of 40 adolescents diagnosed with ADHD and their mothers, fathers, and adolescent siblings living in the household participated. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze family-level data from a total…

  20. The American Slave Narrative. Dramatic Resource Material for the Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polsky, Milton

    1976-01-01

    Notes that the story of the black runaway who escapes the slave status under great risk to live as a free man or woman comprises one of the most meaningful chapters in United States history. The slave narrative genre offers resource material which all children should find compelling and inspiring. (Author/AM)

  1. ATLAS Live: Collaborative Information Streams

    CERN Document Server

    Goldfarb, S; The ATLAS collaboration

    2011-01-01

    I report on a pilot project launched in 2010 focusing on facilitating communication and information exchange within the ATLAS Collaboration, through the combination of digital signage software and webcasting. The project, called ATLAS Live, implements video streams of information, ranging from detailed detector and data status to educational and outreach material. The content, including text, images, video and audio, is collected, visualised and scheduled using digital signage software. The system is robust and flexible, utilizing scripts to input data from remote sources, such as the CERN Document Server, Indico, or any available URL, and to integrate these sources into professional-quality streams, including text scrolling, transition effects, inter and intra-screen divisibility. Information is published via the encoding and webcasting of standard video streams, viewable on all common platforms, using a web browser or other common video tool. Authorisation is enforced at the level of the streaming and at th...

  2. ATLAS Live: Collaborative Information Streams

    CERN Document Server

    Goldfarb, S; The ATLAS collaboration

    2010-01-01

    I report on a pilot project launched in 2010 focusing on facilitating communication and information exchange within the ATLAS Collaboration, through the combination of digital signage software and webcasting. The project, called ATLAS Live, implements video streams of information, ranging from detailed detector and data status to educational and outreach material. The content, including text, images, video and audio, is collected, visualised and scheduled using the SCALA digital signage software system. The system is robust and flexible, allowing for the usage of scripts to input data from remote sources, such as the CERN Document Server, Indico, or any available URL, and to integrate these sources into professional-quality streams, including text scrolling, transition effects, inter and intrascreen divisibility. The video is made available to the collaboration or public through the encoding and webcasting of standard video streams, viewable on all common platforms, using a web browser or other common video t...

  3. Endangered species and cultural resources program Naval petroleum Reserves in California. Annual report FY96

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1997-07-01

    In FY96, Enterprise Advisory Services, Inc. (EASI) continued to support efforts to protect endangered species and cultural resources at the Naval Petroleum Reserves in California (NPRC). These efforts are conducted to ensure NPRC compliance with regulations regarding the protection of listed species and cultural resources on federal properties. Population monitoring activities were conducted for San Joaquin kit foxes, giant kangaroo rats, blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and Hoover`s wooly-star. Kit fox abundance and distribution was assessed by live-trapping over a 329-km{sup 2} area. Kit fox reproduction and mortality were assessed by radiocollaring and monitoring 22 adults and two pups. Reproductive success and litter size were determined through live-trapping and den observations. Rates and sources of kit fox mortality were assessed by recovering dead radiocollared kit foxes and conducting necropsies to determine cause of death. Abundance of coyotes and bobcats, which compete with kit foxes, was determined by conducting scent station surveys. Kit fox diet was assessed through analysis of fecal samples collected from live-trapped foxes. Abundance of potential prey for kit foxes was determined by conducting transect surveys for lagornorphs and live-trapping small mammals.

  4. Review of international classification systems for uranium resources

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang Wenyou

    2007-01-01

    The two primary classification systems for uranium resources in common use in the whole world are described. These uranium resource classification systems were developed under two distinct philosophies, it implies two very different processes, criteria, terms and definitions from which the systems evolved and were implemented. However, the two primary systems are all based on two considerations: the degree of geological confidence and the degree of economic attractiveness based on cost of producing the resource. The uranium resource classification methods currently used in most major uranium producing countries have all a bearing on the two aforesaid classification systems. The disparity exists only in the way or practice of classifying and estimating the uranium resources for reasons of different political and economical systems in various countries. The harmonization of these resource classification systems for uranium can be realized with the economic integration on a global scale. (authors)

  5. From Competitive to Cooperative Resource Management for Cyber-Physical Systems

    OpenAIRE

    Lindberg, Mikael

    2014-01-01

    This thesis presents models and methods for feedback-based resource management for cyber-physical systems. Common for the scenarios considered are severe resource constraints, uncertain and time-varying conditions and the goal of enabling flexibility in systems design rather than restricting it. A brief survey on reservation-based scheduling, an important enabling technology for this thesis, is provided and shows how modern day resource reservation techniques are derived from their real-time ...

  6. Adults living with heart failure and fatigue

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schjødt, Inge; Sommer, Irene; Bjerrum, Merete

    studies have been performed to develop more coherent and effective interventions to support self-care among heart failure patients experiencing fatigue. The findings of qualitative research should be synthesised to optimise nurses' understanding of fatigue and develop recommendations for practice. Aim......Background Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms reported by patients with heart failure (HF). Fatigue negatively impacts on patients’ everyday life, prognosis and quality of life. No specific cure or effective interventions to alleviate fatigue are available. Over the past decade, qualitative...... To synthesise the best available evidence related to the lived experiences and management of fatigue in everyday life in adult patients with stable heart failure to develop effective interventions to support self-care. Specific questions on the patients’ lived experiences included: • How do patients with HF...

  7. The Water Resources Board: England and Wales’ Venture into National Water Resources Planning, 1964-1973

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christine S. McCulloch

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available An era of technocratic national planning of water resources is examined against the views of a leading liberal economist and critics, both contemporary and retrospective. Post Second World War Labour Governments in Britain failed to nationalise either land or water. As late as 1965, the idea of public ownership of all water supplies appeared in the Labour Party manifesto and a short-lived Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, 1964-1966, had amongst its duties the development of plans for reorganising the water supply industry under full public ownership. However, instead of pursuing such a politically dangerous takeover of the industry, in July 1964, a Water Resources Board (WRB, a special interest group dominated by engineers, was set up to advise on the development of water resources. In its first Annual Report (1965 WRB claimed its role as "the master planner of the water resources of England and Wales". The WRB had a great deal of influence and justified its national planning role by promoting large-scale supply schemes such as interbasin transfers of water, large reservoirs and regulated rivers. Feasibility studies were even carried out for building innovative, large storage reservoirs in tidal estuaries. Less progress was made on demand reduction. Yet the seeds of WRB’s demise were contained in its restricted terms of reference. The lack of any remit over water quality was a fatal handicap. Quantity and quality needed to be considered together. Privatisation of the water industry in 1989 led to a shift from national strategic planning by engineers to attempts to strengthen economic instruments to fit supply more closely to demand. Engineers have now been usurped as leaders in water resources management by economists and accountants. Yet climate change may demand a return to national strategic planning of engineered water supply, with greater democratic input.

  8. Human Resource and Nuclear Awareness Development: A Common Synergetic Approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dreimanis, A.

    2016-01-01

    Full text: The nuclear education problem is treated as societal optimization task of nuclear energy management, with the key parameter of optimization—stakeholder awareness level. As the key principles of optimisation are chosen: a self-organization concept, the principle of the requisite variety, where as a primary source of growth of internal variety is information and knowledge. We have shown: public education, social learning and the use of mass media are efficient self-organization mechanisms, thereby forming a knowledge-creating community. Such a created knowledge could facilitate solution of key issues: a) public acceptance of novel nuclear objects, b) promotion of adequate risk perception, and c) fostering of interest to nuclear energy. Comprehensive knowledge management and informational support firstly is needed in: a) for increasing general nuclear awareness and confidence level to nuclear activities, b) personnel education and training, c) reliable staff renascence, d) public education and involvement of all stakeholder categories in decision making, e) risk management. A common approach to nuclear education should include also comprehensive research activities, thereby joining knowledge acquisition with the generation of novel advanced knowledge. (author

  9. Rainforest Depiction in Children's Resources

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dove, Jane

    2011-01-01

    This article analyses how rainforests are portrayed in children's resources. Twenty books and 12 websites on rainforests, designed for pupils aged between 9 and 14 years, were examined to determine the types and range of animals depicted and how plant life in general is portrayed. The most commonly depicted animal was the orang-utan and other…

  10. THE STATE OF THE COMMONS: CASE STUDIES 2010

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rachel Cobcroft

    2010-01-01

    Full Text Available Abstract: ‘What artists need to see before they can feel confident about the licenses are examples of other[s] taking the licenses; incorporating them into their practices.’ – OpenBusiness.cc, p. 8 The Creative Commons Case Studies initiative, established in 2008, offers the ‘free culture’community a qualitative resource to chronicle trends in open content licensing (OCL. Seeking feedback as to individual and organisational motivations towards OCL adoption, and through its provision of usage data, jurisdiction and disciplinary distribution, the CC Case Studies wiki complements current quantitative research projects such as CC Monitor. Containing over 200 entries in July 2010, the CC Case Studies wiki covers several genres such as publishing, moving images, music, visual arts, interactive resources including games, performance, education, and ‘government 2.0’ open data initiatives. Entries represent 25 contributing jurisdictions, with studies being written in several languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Korean. By sharing stories of success and identifying areas of innovation and collaboration, the CC Case Studies wiki encourages creators to contribute to the Commons, whilst contributing to a broader understanding of the dynamics of ‘free culture.’

  11. Evaluating the utility of common-pool resource theory for understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Forrest D Fleischman

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available While Common Pool Resource (CPR theory has been widely applied to forestry, there are few examples of using the theory to study large-scale governance. In this paper we test the applicability of CPR theory to understanding forest governance and outcomes in Indonesia between 1965 and 2012. Indonesia contains one of the world’s largest tropical forests, and experienced rapid deforestation during this time frame, with forest cover dropping from close to 85% to less than 50%. Using a mixture of within case comparison and process tracing methods, we identify key variables that influenced the levels of deforestation during two time periods: before 1998, when governance was dominated by the dictatorship of President Suharto, and after 1998, when democratic governance and political decentralization were initiated, and deforestation rates fell and then rose again. Our results point to the value of CPR theory in identifying important variables that influence sustainability at large scales, however they also illustrate important limitations of CPR theory for the study of forests with large spatial extent and large numbers of users. The presence and absence of key variables from CPR theory did emerge as important causes of deforestation. However, some variables, such as strong leadership and local rule-making, appeared to work in the opposite direction as predicted by CPR theory. In addition, key variables that may have influenced deforestation rates are not well captured in CPR theory. These include the intention of the governance system, the presence of clientelistic politics, the influences of international politics and markets, and the influence of top-down governance. Given that CPR theory does not fully explain the case at hand, its applicability, as is, to large-scale commons should be treated with some caution.

  12. Determining the functional form of density dependence: deductive approaches for consumer-resource systems having a single resource.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abrams, Peter A

    2009-09-01

    Consumer-resource models are used to deduce the functional form of density dependence in the consumer population. A general approach to determining the form of consumer density dependence is proposed; this involves determining the equilibrium (or average) population size for a series of different harvest rates. The relationship between a consumer's mortality and its equilibrium population size is explored for several one-consumer/one-resource models. The shape of density dependence in the resource and the shape of the numerical and functional responses all tend to be "inherited" by the consumer's density dependence. Consumer-resource models suggest that density dependence will very often have both concave and convex segments, something that is impossible under the commonly used theta-logistic model. A range of consumer-resource models predicts that consumer population size often declines at a decelerating rate with mortality at low mortality rates, is insensitive to or increases with mortality over a wide range of intermediate mortalities, and declines at a rapidly accelerating rate with increased mortality when mortality is high. This has important implications for management and conservation of natural populations.

  13. Common and Privatized: Conditions for Wise Management of Matsutake Mushrooms in Northwest Yunnan Province, China

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xuefei Yang

    2009-12-01

    Full Text Available Since Hardin's (1968 paper on the "Tragedy of the Commons," property rights of common-pool resources have been a central concern for natural resource management scholars. Matsutake, a common-pool resource, is an economically important mushroom in several locations around the world. Driven by growing international demand over the last few decades, matsutake management is a relatively new practice both for local communities and government agencies. In Northwest Yunnan, China, one of the most productive areas for matsutake globally, numerous local practices and systems have emerged in the last two to three decades. In this study, we investigate the differences between management systems in eight communities and the factors associated with them. The methods used for field research included key-informant interviews, household surveys, and questionnaires. Three main management patterns were identified through use of statistical clustering based on indicators such as physical environment, resource characteristics, tenure arrangements, regulations and implementation, harvesting behavior, income, and market regulation. It was found that private access - the principal characteristic of which is the exclusive use of resources - results in more income at lower labor cost per household than either of the other open-access management patterns. Even though under the context of ongoing Second Forest Tenure Reform in China - in which collective forest privatization is the key task - application of private-access regimes is limited because of site conditions including physical, institutional, and market environments. Common-access management systems have advantages in terms of managing conflict and balancing equity needs. No matter the type of access right, the key issue for wise matsutake management is institutional. Locally rooted innovative strategies should be encouraged, and institutional capacity building should be carried out to support innovations in

  14. Coping with Natural Hazards in a Conservation Context: Resource-Use Decisions of Maasai Households During Recent and Historical Droughts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miller, Brian W; Leslie, Paul W; McCabe, J Terrence

    2014-10-01

    Analyzing people's decisions can reveal key variables that affect their behaviors. Despite the demonstrated utility of this approach, it has not been applied to livelihood decisions in the context of conservation initiatives. We used ethnographic decision modeling in combination with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to examine the herding decisions of Maasai households living near Tarangire National Park (TNP) during recent and historical droughts. The effects of the establishment of TNP on herding practices during drought were different than anticipated based on the size and reliability of several prominent resource areas that are now within the park. We found little evidence of people relying on these swamps and rivers for watering cattle during historical droughts; rather, these sites were more commonly used as grazing areas for small stock and wet-season grazing areas for cattle to avoid disease carried by calving wildebeest. Yet during the 2009 drought, many herders moved their livestock - especially cattle from outside of the study area - toward TNP in search of grazing. Our analysis of herding decisions demonstrates that resource-use decisions are complex and incorporate a variety of information beyond the size or reliability of a given resource area, including contextual factors (e.g., disease, conflict, grazing) and household factors (e.g., social capital, labor, herd size). More broadly, this research illustrates that pairing decision modeling with QCA is a structured approach to identifying these factors and understanding how opportunities, constraints, and perceptions influence how people respond to changes in resource access.

  15. Are the kids alright? Review books and the internet as the most common study resources for the general surgery clerkship.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Janice A; Shaw, Christiana M; Tan, Sanda A; Falcone, John L

    2018-01-01

    To define resources deemed most important to medical students on their general surgery clerkship, we evaluated their material utilization. A prospective study was conducted amongst third-year medical students using a 20-item survey. Descriptive statistics were performed on the demographics. Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney analyses were performed on the Likert responses (α = 0.05). Survey response was 69.2%. Use of review books and Internet was significantly higher compared to all other resources (p Internet source (39.1%). 56% never used textbooks. Analyses of surgery subject exam (NBME) results or intended specialty with resources used showed no statistical relationship (all p > 0.05). Resources used by students reflect access to high-yield material and increased Internet use. The Internet and review books were used more than the recommended textbook; NBME results were not affected. Understanding study habits and resource use will help guide curricular development and students' self-regulated learning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. The Disposition of Water Supply and Demand in Cameroon: What Potential for what Standard of Living Conditions?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oumar Saidou Baba

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available Aim/purpose - This paper attempts to appraise the potential of water resources for Cameroon and the standard of living conditions confronting people in the country. Design/methodology/approach - A simple descriptive method of data analysis is adopted using analytical tools such as percentages, tables, and means to achieve the objectives of the inquiry. Data for the study were generated from personal observations in one hand and collected from water resources literature, on the other hand. Findings - With the help of the data gathered, the paper establishes that despite the existence of abundant water resources in Cameroon the standard of living conditions of people with respect to basic needs of survival such as drinking water, improved sanitation services, and electricity supply is far below expectation. Research implications/limitations - The main implication of the study is that in spite of the surplus volume of water resources (325.96 km3 or 95.12% of annual total water resources endowment in Cameroon, the population benefits marginally from it due to the mismanagement of resources and misplacement of priorities as obtained in most sub-Saharan African countries. One limitation of this study is that the use of limited primary data in the investigation offers no room toward establishing the extent of water resources allocation to the various users of water in the country. Originality/value/contribution - The paper suggests that the government of Cameroon should encourage the population to run community basic social services projects and subsidize the activities of such ventures in kind through technical assistance or in cash.

  17. Weight evolution and perceptions of adults living with HIV following ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Background. Obesity and undernutrition are common in South Africa and influence the health outcomes of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). Aim. To describe the anthropometric changes and perceptions of body weight in adults initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methods. A cohort of 230 ...

  18. Measuring and Sustaining the Impact of Less Commonly Taught Language Collections in a Research Library

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lenkart, Joe; Teper, Thomas H.; Thacker, Mara; Witt, Steven W.

    2015-01-01

    To evaluate the current state of resource sharing and cooperative collection development, this paper examines the relationship between less commonly taught language collections (LCTL) and ILL services. The study examined multiple years of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's resource-sharing data. This paper provides a historical…

  19. A Living Lab as a Service: Creating Value for Micro-enterprises through Collaboration and Innovation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Ståhlbröst

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The need to innovate is increasingly important for all types and sizes of organizations, but the opportunities for innovation differ substantially between them. For micro-, small,- and medium-sized enterprises, innovation activities are both crucial and demanding because of limited resources, competencies, or vision to innovate their offerings. To support these organizations, the concept of living labs as a service has started to emerge. This concept refers to living labs offering services such as designing the idea-generation processes, planning or carrying out real-world tests of innovations, and pre-market launch assessments. In this article, we will present the findings from a study of micro-enterprises operating in the information technology development sector, including the experienced value of services provided to the companies by a research-based living lab. We share experiences from Botnia, our own living lab in northern Sweden. In this living lab, our aim of creating value for customers is of key importance. Our study shows that using a living lab as a service can generate three different types of value: improved innovations, the role the living lab can play, and the support the living lab offers.

  20. Natural Resource Management at Four Social Scales: Psychological Type Matters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Allison, Helen; Hobbs, Richard

    2010-03-01

    Understanding organisation at different social scales is crucial to learning how social processes play a role in sustainable natural resource management. Research has neglected the potential role that individual personality plays in decision making in natural resource management. In the past two decades natural resource management across rural Australia has increasingly come under the direct influence of voluntary participatory groups, such as Catchment Management Authorities. The greater complexity of relationships among all stakeholders is a serious management challenge when attempting to align their differing aspirations and values at four social institutional scales—local, regional, state and national. This is an exploratory study on the psychological composition of groups of stakeholders at the four social scales in natural resource management in Australia. This article uses the theory of temperaments and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) to investigate the distribution of personality types. The distribution of personality types in decision-making roles in natural resource management was markedly different from the Australian Archive sample. Trends in personality were found across social scales with Stabilizer temperament more common at the local scale and Theorist temperament more common at the national scale. Greater similarity was found at the state and national scales. Two temperaments comprised between 76 and 90% of participants at the local and regional scales, the common temperament type was Stabilizer. The dissimilarity was Improviser (40%) at the local scale and Theorist (29%) at the regional scale. Implications for increasing participation and bridging the gap between community and government are discussed.

  1. Live from the Arctic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warnick, W. K.; Haines-Stiles, G.; Warburton, J.; Sunwood, K.

    2003-12-01

    residents speak in eloquent terms of the changes they see around them, manifested in new patterns of vegetation, the melting of permafrost and the absence of game species that used to be abundant. Meanwhile, new satellites and more sophisticated sensors on the ground and in the ice, add scientific testimony that seems to support and even extend native perceptions. Live from the Arctic will unify both perspectives, and use todays most powerful and effective communications media to connect young people and general audiences all across America to researchers and communities living and working in the Arctic. During IPY there will be a level of interest in the Polar regions unprecedented in a generation. Live from the Arctic offers unique resources to satisfy that curiosity, and encourage active participation and engagement in understanding some of Earths most significant peoples, places and rapidly changing conditions.

  2. Resource reliability, accessibility and governance: pillars for managing water resources to achieve water security in Nepal

    Science.gov (United States)

    Biggs, E. M.; Duncan, J.; Atkinson, P.; Dash, J.

    2013-12-01

    As one of the world's most water-abundant countries, Nepal has plenty of water yet resources are both spatially and temporally unevenly distributed. With a population heavily engaged in subsistence farming, whereby livelihoods are entirely dependent on rain-fed agriculture, changes in freshwater resources can substantially impact upon survival. The two main sources of water in Nepal come from monsoon precipitation and glacial runoff. The former is essential for sustaining livelihoods where communities have little or no access to perennial water resources. Much of Nepal's population live in the southern Mid-Hills and Terai regions where dependency on the monsoon system is high and climate-environment interactions are intricate. Any fluctuations in precipitation can severely affect essential potable resources and food security. As the population continues to expand in Nepal, and pressures build on access to adequate and clean water resources, there is a need for institutions to cooperate and increase the effectiveness of water management policies. This research presents a framework detailing three fundamental pillars for managing water resources to achieve sustainable water security in Nepal. These are (i) resource reliability; (ii) adequate accessibility; and (iii) effective governance. Evidence is presented which indicates that water resources are adequate in Nepal to sustain the population. In addition, aspects of climate change are having less impact than previously perceived e.g. results from trend analysis of precipitation time-series indicate a decrease in monsoon extremes and interannual variation over the last half-century. However, accessibility to clean water resources and the potential for water storage is limiting the use of these resources. This issue is particularly prevalent given the heterogeneity in spatial and temporal distributions of water. Water governance is also ineffective due to government instability and a lack of continuity in policy

  3. Spirituality and Dignity of Thai Adolescents Living with HIV

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karnsunaphat Balthip

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available (1 Background: Adolescents are a key asset and resource for the social and economic development of any country, with the potential to make a significant contribution to their families, communities and countries. Healthy and educated adolescents are important. However, there are still significant rates of death, illness and disease among adolescents in some countries, where HIV is one of the most prevalent causes of death in this group. Adolescents living with HIV may experience and encounter social restrictions and physiological limitations. Therefore, this investigation explored whether the concepts of spirituality and dignity had any relevance to participants sense of meaning and purpose and whether these had any impact upon their health and well-being (2 Methods: A qualitative descriptive design was used involving twenty-two adolescents living with HIV attending one regional hospital in Southern Thailand. One to one interviews and descriptive diaries were used to collect the data and thematic analysis enabled the identification of attributes of spirituality and dignity. (3 Results: The findings revealed that spirituality and dignity were present in the lives of Thai adolescents living with HIV expressed in the main category of living life responsibly. This comprised of six themes: (a Understanding the disease and accepting the truth about life, (b Maintaining hope for a cure, (c Focusing on life’s purposes, (d Making life choices, (e Caring for oneself and (f Responsibility towards other. (4 Conclusions: The findings provide helpful insights for parents, nurses, and other health professionals supporting adolescents living with HIV to obtain a holistic, dignified approach to care that includes attention to the spiritual dimension.

  4. Life and Death in the City: Demography and Living Standards during Stockholm's Industrialization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Molitoris, Joseph John

    2015-01-01

    ’s intergenerational social mobility, and infant and child mortality during Stockholm’s industrialization and fertility transition. The results of this work challenge many existing explanations of the fertility decline and reveal how, despite overall improvements in living standards, elite socioeconomic groups were......This dissertation uses longitudinal micro-data from Stockholm between 1878 and 1926 to study the causes and consequences of the fertility transition and to examine the development of living standards inequality during industrialization. Although both processes have received much interest from...... able to continually leverage their superior resources to maintain significantly lower levels of infant and child mortality....

  5. Natural radioactivity (40K) measurement in common food grains using indigenous technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Narayan, Pradeep; Sahani, R.M.; Damor, S.L.; D'Souza, P.M.

    2018-01-01

    Ingestion of contaminated food is one of the major causes of internal doses received in various human organs. As there being no material free from radioactivity on this globe; knowledge of natural radioactivity concentration in common food items is very important for judging the origin of contamination due to nuclear emergency or other man-made activities. An indigenous technology for radioactivity measurement in food/bulk items has been developed and tested using live radioactive sources. This has also been explored for natural radioactivity measurement in common food grains consumed by Indian population. This paper reports the measured natural radioactivity ( 40 K) in common Indian food grains using the developed technology

  6. Living probabilistic safety assessment (LPSA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-08-01

    Over the past few years many nuclear power plant organizations have performed probabilistic safety assessments (PSAs) to identify and understand key plant vulnerabilities. As a result of the availability of these PSA studies, there is a desire to use them to enhance plant safety and to operate the nuclear stations in the most efficient manner. PSA is an effective tool for this purpose as it assists plant management to target resources where the largest benefit to plant safety can be obtained. However, any PSA which is to be used in this way must have a credible and defensible basis. Thus, it is very important to have a high quality 'living PSA' accepted by the plant and the regulator. With this background in mind, the IAEA has prepared this report on Living Probabilistic Safety Assessment (LPSA) which addresses the updating, documentation, quality assurance, and management and organizational requirements for LPSA. Deficiencies in the areas addressed in this report would seriously reduce the adequacy of the LPSA as a tool to support decision making at NPPs. This report was reviewed by a working group during a Technical Committee Meeting on PSA Applications to Improve NPP Safety held in Madrid, Spain, from 23 to 27 February 1998

  7. Hospital admission planning to optimize major resources utilization under uncertainty

    OpenAIRE

    Dellaert, N.P.; Jeunet, J.

    2010-01-01

    Admission policies for elective inpatient services mainly result in the management of a single resource: the operating theatre as it is commonly considered as the most critical and expensive resource in a hospital. However, other bottleneck resources may lead to surgery cancellations, such as bed capacity and nursing staff in Intensive Care (IC) units and bed occupancy in wards or medium care (MC) services. Our incentive is therefore to determine a master schedule of a given number of patient...

  8. Living Technology

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2010-01-01

    This book is aimed at anyone who is interested in learning more about living technology, whether coming from business, the government, policy centers, academia, or anywhere else. Its purpose is to help people to learn what living technology is, what it might develop into, and how it might impact...... our lives. The phrase 'living technology' was coined to refer to technology that is alive as well as technology that is useful because it shares the fundamental properties of living systems. In particular, the invention of this phrase was called for to describe the trend of our technology becoming...... increasingly life-like or literally alive. Still, the phrase has different interpretations depending on how one views what life is. This book presents nineteen perspectives on living technology. Taken together, the interviews convey the collective wisdom on living technology's power and promise, as well as its...

  9. GapMap: Enabling Comprehensive Autism Resource Epidemiology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albert, Nikhila; Daniels, Jena; Schwartz, Jessey; Du, Michael; Wall, Dennis P

    2017-05-04

    For individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), finding resources can be a lengthy and difficult process. The difficulty in obtaining global, fine-grained autism epidemiological data hinders researchers from quickly and efficiently studying large-scale correlations among ASD, environmental factors, and geographical and cultural factors. The objective of this study was to define resource load and resource availability for families affected by autism and subsequently create a platform to enable a more accurate representation of prevalence rates and resource epidemiology. We created a mobile application, GapMap, to collect locational, diagnostic, and resource use information from individuals with autism to compute accurate prevalence rates and better understand autism resource epidemiology. GapMap is hosted on AWS S3, running on a React and Redux front-end framework. The backend framework is comprised of an AWS API Gateway and Lambda Function setup, with secure and scalable end points for retrieving prevalence and resource data, and for submitting participant data. Measures of autism resource scarcity, including resource load, resource availability, and resource gaps were defined and preliminarily computed using simulated or scraped data. The average distance from an individual in the United States to the nearest diagnostic center is approximately 182 km (50 miles), with a standard deviation of 235 km (146 miles). The average distance from an individual with ASD to the nearest diagnostic center, however, is only 32 km (20 miles), suggesting that individuals who live closer to diagnostic services are more likely to be diagnosed. This study confirmed that individuals closer to diagnostic services are more likely to be diagnosed and proposes GapMap, a means to measure and enable the alleviation of increasingly overburdened diagnostic centers and resource-poor areas where parents are unable to diagnose their children as quickly and easily as needed. GapMap will

  10. LIVED EXPERIENCES OF THE ABUSED ELDERLY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Joel Rey U. Acob

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Aim: The study determined individual lived experiences of the abused elderly in the provinces of Leyte and Biliran. Methods: The study utilized qualitative phenomenology. Interviews are made and recorded, then later transcribed verbatim. Collaizi’s method is used as method of analysis to obtain themes of the lived experiences of the ten abused key informants. Results: Based from results, most of the abused entities are female, widowed aging 6o to 65 years old, earning less than 2000 pesos per month and are dependently living in a nuclear family structure for 40 years. Based on their responses to the open-ended guide questions, key informants revealed emotional mistreatment being the most extensive type of abuse. Physical and sexual maltreatment are also evident amidst their old age. Family members and employers are the main identified perpetrators of the elderly. Bruises on most covered areas in their body, rope burns, torn undergarments, being touched without consent are some of the objective indicators of abuse. Themes such as family violence and workplace mistreatment are the most common form of abuse experienced. Conclusion: Based from the findings, it is recommended that the local government and concerned stakeholders to timely review existing rules protecting vulnerable adults especially its implementation.

  11. Research Design for the Chief Joseph Dam Cultural Resources Project.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1984-01-01

    herding , long before they could be studied as living systems. In only a few places has the hunting and gathering village pattern persisted until...icrotus montanus) Common Resident -.. Beaver (Castor canadensis) Rare Resident - . Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) Common Resident White-tailed hare (Lepus...of present deer herds cannot be applied to prehistoric herd sizes and structures, certain behavior patterns may be long lasting. Erickson (Erickson

  12. Satellite Data of Atmospheric Pollution for U.S. Air Quality Applications: Examples of Applications, Summary of Data End-user Resources, Answers to Faqs, and Common Mistakes to Avoid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Bryan Neal; Prados, Ana; Lamsal, Lok N.; Liu, Yang; Streets, David G.; Gupta, Pawan; Hilsenrath, Ernest; Kahn, Ralph A.; Nielsen, J. Eric; Beyersdorf, Andreas J.; hide

    2014-01-01

    Satellite data of atmospheric pollutants are becoming more widely used in the decision-making and environmental management activities of public, private sector and non-profit organizations. They are employed for estimating emissions, tracking pollutant plumes, supporting air quality forecasting activities, providing evidence for "exceptional event" declarations, monitoring regional long-term trends, and evaluating air quality model output. However, many air quality managers are not taking full advantage of the data for these applications nor has the full potential of satellite data for air quality applications been realized. A key barrier is the inherent difficulties associated with accessing, processing, and properly interpreting observational data. A degree of technical skill is required on the part of the data end-user, which is often problematic for air quality agencies with limited resources. Therefore, we 1) review the primary uses of satellite data for air quality applications, 2) provide some background information on satellite capabilities for measuring pollutants, 3) discuss the many resources available to the end-user for accessing, processing, and visualizing the data, and 4) provide answers to common questions in plain language.

  13. The Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure MIRRI: Strength through Coordination

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erko Stackebrandt

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Microbial resources have been recognized as essential raw materials for the advancement of health and later for biotechnology, agriculture, food technology and for research in the life sciences, as their enormous abundance and diversity offer an unparalleled source of unexplored solutions. Microbial domain biological resource centres (mBRC provide live cultures and associated data to foster and support the development of basic and applied science in countries worldwide and especially in Europe, where the density of highly advanced mBRCs is high. The not-for-profit and distributed project MIRRI (Microbial Resource Research Infrastructure aims to coordinate access to hitherto individually managed resources by developing a pan-European platform which takes the interoperability and accessibility of resources and data to a higher level. Providing a wealth of additional information and linking to datasets such as literature, environmental data, sequences and chemistry will enable researchers to select organisms suitable for their research and enable innovative solutions to be developed. The current independent policies and managed processes will be adapted by partner mBRCs to harmonize holdings, services, training, and accession policy and to share expertise. The infrastructure will improve access to enhanced quality microorganisms in an appropriate legal framework and to resource-associated data in a more interoperable way.

  14. Prevalence of risk factors for falls among elderly people living in long-term care homes

    OpenAIRE

    Pradnya Dhargave, PhD; Ragupathy Sendhilkumar, MSc, MPT

    2016-01-01

    Background: Falls are common among the geriatric population, causing frequent morbidity and mortality. There is an increased risk of fall among older people living in long-term care homes. Identifying risk factors for falls among older people living in old-age homes can help in the care and prevention of falls in this population. Aim: To evaluate the prevalence of various risk factors for falls among older people living in long-term care homes. Methods: A total of 163 elderly men and wo...

  15. ATLAS Live: Collaborative Information Streams

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goldfarb, Steven [Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Collaboration: ATLAS Collaboration

    2011-12-23

    I report on a pilot project launched in 2010 focusing on facilitating communication and information exchange within the ATLAS Collaboration, through the combination of digital signage software and webcasting. The project, called ATLAS Live, implements video streams of information, ranging from detailed detector and data status to educational and outreach material. The content, including text, images, video and audio, is collected, visualised and scheduled using digital signage software. The system is robust and flexible, utilizing scripts to input data from remote sources, such as the CERN Document Server, Indico, or any available URL, and to integrate these sources into professional-quality streams, including text scrolling, transition effects, inter and intra-screen divisibility. Information is published via the encoding and webcasting of standard video streams, viewable on all common platforms, using a web browser or other common video tool. Authorisation is enforced at the level of the streaming and at the web portals, using the CERN SSO system.

  16. ATLAS Live: Collaborative Information Streams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goldfarb, Steven

    2011-01-01

    I report on a pilot project launched in 2010 focusing on facilitating communication and information exchange within the ATLAS Collaboration, through the combination of digital signage software and webcasting. The project, called ATLAS Live, implements video streams of information, ranging from detailed detector and data status to educational and outreach material. The content, including text, images, video and audio, is collected, visualised and scheduled using digital signage software. The system is robust and flexible, utilizing scripts to input data from remote sources, such as the CERN Document Server, Indico, or any available URL, and to integrate these sources into professional-quality streams, including text scrolling, transition effects, inter and intra-screen divisibility. Information is published via the encoding and webcasting of standard video streams, viewable on all common platforms, using a web browser or other common video tool. Authorisation is enforced at the level of the streaming and at the web portals, using the CERN SSO system.

  17. Temporal and spatial resource use by female three-toed sloths and their young in an agricultural landscape in Costa Rica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Oscar Ramirez

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The information on ecological behavior of wild sloths is very scarce. In this study we determined the home ranges and resources used by three adult female three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus and their four young in an agricultural matrix of cacao (Theobroma cacao, pasture, riparian forests and living fencerows in Costa Rica. Births occurred during November-December and the young became independent at five to seven months of age. Initially, mothers remained fixed in one or a few trees, but expanded their use of resources as young sloths became independent from them. Mothers initially guided the young to preferred food and cover resources, but they gradually left their young in small nucleus areas and colonized new areas for themselves. Home range sizes for young sloths (up to seven months of age varied between 0.04-0.6 hectares, while home range sizes for mothers varied from 0.04-25.0 hectares. During the maternal care period, 22 tree species were used, with the most common being Cecropia obtusifolia (30.9%, Coussapoa villosa (25.6%, Nectandra salicifolia (12.1%, Pterocarpus officinalis (5.8% and Samanea saman (5.4%. However, young sloths used only 20 tree species, with the most common being C. villosa (18.4%, S. saman (18.5 % and N. salicifolia (16.7%. The cacao agroforest was used only by mother sloths and never by their young following separation. However, in the riparian forest, both mother sloths and young used the tree species. A total of 28 tree species were used by the mother sloth; including the food species: C. obtusifolia, C. villosa, N. salicifolia and P. officinalis. However, the young used 18 trees species in this habitat with N. salicifolia and S. saman most commonly used, although they rested and fed during the day in C. obtusifolia, C. villosa and O. sinnuata. The cacao agroforest with adjacent riparian forests and fencerows provides an important habitat type that links the smaller secondary forests and other patches. Rev

  18. 75 FR 66038 - Planning Resource Adequacy Assessment Reliability Standard

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-27

    ..., providing a common framework for resource adequacy analysis, assessment, and documentation) effectively and...://www.nerc.com/commondocs.php?cd=2 . D. Proposed Effective Date 24. Proposed regional Reliability...

  19. A living wage for research subjects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Phillips, Trisha B

    2011-01-01

    Offering cash payments to research subjects is a common recruiting method, but this practice continues to be controversial because of its potential to compromise the protection of human subjects. Federal regulations and guidelines currently allow researchers to pay subjects for participation, but they say very little about how much researchers can pay their subjects. This paper argues that the federal regulations and guidelines should implement a standard payment formula. It argues for a wage payment model, and critically examines three candidates for a base wage: the nonfarm production wage, the FLSA minimum wage, and a living wage. After showing that the nonfarm production wage is too high to satisfy ethical criteria, and the minimum wage is too low, this paper concludes that the wage payment model with a base wage equivalent to a living wage is the best candidate for a standard payment formula in human subjects research. © 2011 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

  20. Use of health services by residents at a seniors-only living facility

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elen Ferraz Teston

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The objective of the study was to compare the use of medical and dental services by seniors residing at a seniors-only living facility and in the general community. It was a quantitative study, among 50 residents of the living facility and 173 in the general community. The data were collected between November 2011 and February 2012 through a questionnaire, and subjected to statistical analysis. Performance of clinical exams and satisfaction with health services was greater among seniors living in the general community; however, physical therapy treatment was more common among those living in the facility. The use of medical and dental services showed a statistically significant difference. The seniors in both groups need oral health monitoring and those living in the facility also require coverage by the Family Health Strategy. The presence of professionals with the right profile to adequately serve residents and the network of available services are determining factors for the success of this new housing policy.

  1. Classroom Live: a software-assisted gamification tool

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Freitas, Adrian A.; de Freitas, Michelle M.

    2013-06-01

    Teachers have come to rely on a variety of approaches in order to elicit and sustain student interest in the classroom. One particular approach, known as gamification, seeks to improve student engagement by transforming the traditional classroom experience into a competitive multiplayer game. Initial attempts at classroom gamification relied on the teacher manually tracking student progress. At the US Air Force Academy, we wanted to experiment with a software gamification tool. Our client/server suite, dubbed Classroom Live, streamlines the gamification process for the teacher by simplifying common tasks. Simultaneously, the tool provides students with an esthetically pleasing user interface that offers in game rewards in exchange for their participation. Classroom Live is still in development, but our initial experience using the tool has been extremely positive and confirms our belief that students respond positively to gamification, even at the undergraduate level.

  2. Smart Money? Philanthropic and Federal Funding for the Common Core

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kornhaber, Mindy L.; Barkauskas, Nikolaus J.; Griffith, Kelly M.

    2016-01-01

    The Common Core State Standards Initiative seeks to prepare all students to graduate high school without remedial needs, to improve transparency across states' accountability systems, and to foster efficiencies in the development and distribution of educational resources. The reform was adopted in more than 40 states and has been described as…

  3. Common neural substrates for visual working memory and attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mayer, Jutta S; Bittner, Robert A; Nikolić, Danko; Bledowski, Christoph; Goebel, Rainer; Linden, David E J

    2007-06-01

    Humans are severely limited in their ability to memorize visual information over short periods of time. Selective attention has been implicated as a limiting factor. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the hypothesis that this limitation is due to common neural resources shared by visual working memory (WM) and selective attention. We combined visual search and delayed discrimination of complex objects and independently modulated the demands on selective attention and WM encoding. Participants were presented with a search array and performed easy or difficult visual search in order to encode one or three complex objects into visual WM. Overlapping activation for attention-demanding visual search and WM encoding was observed in distributed posterior and frontal regions. In the right prefrontal cortex and bilateral insula blood oxygen-level-dependent activation additively increased with increased WM load and attentional demand. Conversely, several visual, parietal and premotor areas showed overlapping activation for the two task components and were severely reduced in their WM load response under the condition with high attentional demand. Regions in the left prefrontal cortex were selectively responsive to WM load. Areas selectively responsive to high attentional demand were found within the right prefrontal and bilateral occipital cortex. These results indicate that encoding into visual WM and visual selective attention require to a high degree access to common neural resources. We propose that competition for resources shared by visual attention and WM encoding can limit processing capabilities in distributed posterior brain regions.

  4. Should humans interfere in the lives of elephants?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H.P.P. Lötter

    2005-07-01

    Full Text Available Culling seems to be a cruel method of human interference in the lives of elephants. Culling is generally used to control population numbers of highly developed mammals to protect vegetation and habitat for other species. Many people are against human interference in the lives of elephants. In this article aspects of this highly controversial issue are explored. Three fascinating characteristics of this ethical dilemma are discussed in the introductory part, and then the major arguments raised against human interference in the lives of elephants are evaluated. These arguments are the following: First, that nature should be allowed to run its course and establish its own balance; nature will thus solve the problem of elephant over-population. The second argument raised by animal-rights activists as well as by animal-welfare groups either claim that animals have rights that humans must respect at all times, or that all sentient beings have interests that humans ought to respect, as those beings can experience pleasure or pain. The third argument often associates culling elephants as method for population control with the commercial use and exploitation of wilderness areas. Many people argue that it is unethical to use wildlife as a sustainable resource for fighting poverty. In conclusion it is stated that despite these arguments human

  5. Open Code - Open Content - Open Law. Building a Digital Commons

    Science.gov (United States)

    1999-06-21

    PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER IATAC Information Assurance Technology Analysis Center 3190 Fairview Park Drive Falls Church VA 22042 9... Internet live up to its possibilities. Need institutions to facilitate participation. -Nolan Bowie: Need to assure that information gets into the...particular markets . -Tamar Frankel: Loss of some of commons as a result of technological change. Need to create a new institutional struc- ture to restore

  6. Living systematic reviews: 2. Combining human and machine effort.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, James; Noel-Storr, Anna; Marshall, Iain; Wallace, Byron; McDonald, Steven; Mavergames, Chris; Glasziou, Paul; Shemilt, Ian; Synnot, Anneliese; Turner, Tari; Elliott, Julian

    2017-11-01

    New approaches to evidence synthesis, which use human effort and machine automation in mutually reinforcing ways, can enhance the feasibility and sustainability of living systematic reviews. Human effort is a scarce and valuable resource, required when automation is impossible or undesirable, and includes contributions from online communities ("crowds") as well as more conventional contributions from review authors and information specialists. Automation can assist with some systematic review tasks, including searching, eligibility assessment, identification and retrieval of full-text reports, extraction of data, and risk of bias assessment. Workflows can be developed in which human effort and machine automation can each enable the other to operate in more effective and efficient ways, offering substantial enhancement to the productivity of systematic reviews. This paper describes and discusses the potential-and limitations-of new ways of undertaking specific tasks in living systematic reviews, identifying areas where these human/machine "technologies" are already in use, and where further research and development is needed. While the context is living systematic reviews, many of these enabling technologies apply equally to standard approaches to systematic reviewing. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Cardiovascular patients’ experiences of living with pacemaker: Qualitative study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Morteza Ghojazadeh

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: A pacemaker implantation is considered major life event for cardiovascular patients, so they will probably have very interesting experiences of living with this device. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of cardiovascular patients living with the pacemaker. METHODS: In this qualitative study, 27 patients were chosen through purposive sampling to achieve data saturation, and their experiences were examined using semi-structured interviews. The patients’ statements were recorded with their consent and analyzed using content analysis method. RESULTS: Participants’ experiences included three main themes: “Problems and limitations,” “feeling and dealing with pacemaker”, and “sources of comfort” and 10 sub-themes including: physical problems, financial problems, social problems, the first encounter, the feeling of living with the pacemaker, how to cope with pacemaker, satisfaction with pacemaker, good family support, hospital and hospital staff performance, and role of religious beliefs. CONCLUSION: Planning to solve social problems, identifying and changing feelings of patients using pacemakers, reinforcing the resources of comfort especially family support seem to be necessary steps for improving quality of life and impact of using pacemaker. 

  8. Classification of geothermal resources by potential

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rybach, L.

    2015-03-01

    When considering and reporting resources, the term "geothermal potential" is often used without clearly stating what kind of potential is meant. For renewable energy resources it is nowadays common to use different potentials: theoretical, technical, economic, sustainable, developable - decreasing successively in size. In such a sequence, the potentials are progressively realizable and more and more rewarding financially. The theoretical potential describes the physically present energy, the technical potential the fraction of this energy that can be used by currently available technology and the economic potential the time- and location-dependent fraction of the previous category; the sustainable potential constrains the fraction of the economic potential that can be utilized in the long term; the developable potential is the fraction of the economic resource which can be developed under realistic conditions. In converting theoretical to technical potential, the recovery factor (the ratio extractable heat/heat present at depth) is of key importance. An example (global geothermal resources) is given, with numerical values of the various potentials. The proposed classification could and should be used as a kind of general template for future geothermal energy resources reporting.

  9. Live Coral Cover Index Testing and Application with Hyperspectral Airborne Image Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Karen E. Joyce

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available Coral reefs are complex, heterogeneous environments where it is common for the features of interest to be smaller than the spatial dimensions of imaging sensors. While the coverage of live coral at any point in time is a critical environmental management issue, image pixels may represent mixed proportions of coverage. In order to address this, we describe the development, application, and testing of a spectral index for mapping live coral cover using CASI-2 airborne hyperspectral high spatial resolution imagery of Heron Reef, Australia. Field surveys were conducted in areas of varying depth to quantify live coral cover. Image statistics were extracted from co-registered imagery in the form of reflectance, derivatives, and band ratios. Each of the spectral transforms was assessed for their correlation with live coral cover, determining that the second derivative around 564 nm was the most sensitive to live coral cover variations(r2 = 0.63. Extensive field survey was used to transform relative to absolute coral cover, which was then applied to produce a live coral cover map of Heron Reef. We present the live coral cover index as a simple and viable means to estimate the amount of live coral over potentially thousands of km2 and in clear-water reefs.

  10. 2007 Electronic Reference Services In Nigerian Law Libraries.

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ezra

    interaction or interviewing techniques. The ... change. Abid, (2002), observed it is now common to find reference resources such as dictionaries .... Com,) Live Helper http:www. Wehelper. ..... sources, resources and strategies for legal research ...

  11. Water Electrolysis for In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kristopher A.

    2016-01-01

    Sending humans to Mars for any significant amount of time will require capabilities and technologies that enable Earth independence. To move towards this independence, the resources found on Mars must be utilized to produce the items needed to sustain humans away from Earth. To accomplish this task, NASA is studying In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) systems and techniques to make use of the atmospheric carbon dioxide and the water found on Mars. Among other things, these substances can be harvested and processed to make oxygen and methane. Oxygen is essential, not only for sustaining the lives of the crew on Mars, but also as the oxidizer for an oxygen-methane propulsion system that could be utilized on a Mars ascent vehicle. Given the presence of water on Mars, the electrolysis of water is a common technique to produce the desired oxygen. Towards this goal, NASA designed and developed a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolysis system, which was originally slated to produce oxygen for propulsion and fuel cell use in the Mars Atmosphere and Regolith COllector/PrOcessor for Lander Operations (MARCO POLO) project. As part of the Human Exploration Spacecraft Testbed for Integration and Advancement (HESTIA) project, this same electrolysis system, originally targeted at enabling in situ propulsion and power, operated in a life-support scenario. During HESTIA testing at Johnson Space Center, the electrolysis system supplied oxygen to a chamber simulating a habitat housing four crewmembers. Inside the chamber, oxygen was removed from the atmosphere to simulate consumption by the crew, and the electrolysis system's oxygen was added to replenish it. The electrolysis system operated nominally throughout the duration of the HESTIA test campaign, and the oxygen levels in the life support chamber were maintained at the desired levels.

  12. Microplastics ingestion by a common tropical freshwater fishing resource.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Silva-Cavalcanti, Jacqueline Santos; Silva, José Diego B; França, Elton José de; Araújo, Maria Christina Barbosa de; Gusmão, Felipe

    2017-02-01

    Microplastics pollution is widespread in marine ecosystems and a major threat to biodiversity. Nevertheless, our knowledge of the impacts of microplastics in freshwater environments and biota is still very limited. The interaction of microplastics with freshwater organisms and the risks associated with the human consumption of organisms that ingested microplastics remain major knowledge gaps. In this study, we assessed the ingestion of microplastics by Hoplosternum littorale, a common freshwater fish heavily consumed by humans in semi-arid regions of South America. We assessed the abundance and diversity of both plastic debris and other food items found in the gut of fishes caught by local fishermen. We observed that 83% of the fish had plastic debris inside the gut, the highest frequency reported for a fish species so far. Most of the plastic debris (88.6%) recovered from the guts of fish were microplastics (microplastics at the urbanized sections of the river, and that the ingestion of microplastics was negatively correlated with the diversity of other food items in the gut of individual fish. Nevertheless, microplastics ingestion appears to have a limited impact on H. littorale, and the consequences of human consumption of this fish were not assessed. Our results suggest freshwater biota are vulnerable to microplastics pollution and that urbanization is a major factor contributing to the pollution of freshwater environments with microplastics. We suggest the gut content of fish could be used as a tool for the qualitative assessment of microplastics pollution in freshwater ecosystems. Further research is needed to determine the processes responsible for the high incidence of microplastics ingestion by H. littorale, and to evaluate the risk posed to humans by the consumption of freshwater fish that ingested microplastics. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Wide field of view common-path lateral-shearing digital holographic interference microscope.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vora, Priyanka; Trivedi, Vismay; Mahajan, Swapnil; Patel, Nimit; Joglekar, Mugdha; Chhaniwal, Vani; Moradi, Ali-Reza; Javidi, Bahram; Anand, Arun

    2017-12-01

    Quantitative three-dimensional (3-D) imaging of living cells provides important information about the cell morphology and its time variation. Off-axis, digital holographic interference microscopy is an ideal tool for 3-D imaging, parameter extraction, and classification of living cells. Two-beam digital holographic microscopes, which are usually employed, provide high-quality 3-D images of micro-objects, albeit with lower temporal stability. Common-path digital holographic geometries, in which the reference beam is derived from the object beam, provide higher temporal stability along with high-quality 3-D images. Self-referencing geometry is the simplest of the common-path techniques, in which a portion of the object beam itself acts as the reference, leading to compact setups using fewer optical elements. However, it has reduced field of view, and the reference may contain object information. Here, we describe the development of a common-path digital holographic microscope, employing a shearing plate and converting one of the beams into a separate reference by employing a pin-hole. The setup is as compact as self-referencing geometry, while providing field of view as wide as that of a two-beam microscope. The microscope is tested by imaging and quantifying the morphology and dynamics of human erythrocytes. (2017) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

  14. Resource reflecting functor and its application to non-uniformity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Srinivasan, Priyaa Varshinee; Sanders, Barry C.; Cockett, Robin

    In this work, we formulate an abstract approach to translate one resource theory to another. We adopt the notion of resource theories as partitioned symmetric monoidal categories and extend this notion by considering resource-reflecting functors between resource theories. A functor F is a structure preserving map and F is said to be resource-reflecting if F (g) being a free transformation implies that the transformation g is also free. Thus, a resource-reflecting functor demonstrates that the existence of a free transformation between two resources in the domain resource theory can be inferred from the existence of a free transformation in the codomain theory. As an example, we construct one such functor from the resource theory of non-uniformity to a resource theory of majorization. Thus, our work lays a foundation for expressing similarities between resource theories and for applying results achieved in one resource theory to another. An abstract approach to the translation between theories enables common patterns to be identified between resource theories thereby reducing the effort of solving the same problem for different theories. BCS appreciates financial support from Alberta Innovates, NSERC, China's 1000 Talent Plan and the IQIM, which is an NSF Physics Frontiers Centre (NSF Grant PHY-1125565) with support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (GBMF-2644).

  15. Not all resources are created equal: COR theory, values, and stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morelli, Neil A; Cunningham, Christopher J L

    2012-01-01

    The common usage of conservation of resources (COR) theory highlights the quantity of resources in explaining stress reactions and responses. To expand the theoretical understanding and explanatory power of COR theory, this study tested the proposition that the perceived importance of an individual's resources is a function of personal values. Using a value framework based on Schwartz (1994), it was expected that values would influence both the appraisal of resource importance and coping behaviors. Results from both student and working samples indicated that while resource importance did not clearly mediate all of the coping outcomes, values did have an influence on the importance an individual assigns to resources. Measurement and theoretical implications related to COR theory are discussed.

  16. Gulf Canada Resources Limited 1998 annual report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1999-01-01

    A review of operations in 1998 and financial information from Gulf Canada Resources Limited is provided to keep shareholders abreast of company performance. Gulf Canada Resources Limited explores for, develops, produces and markets conventional and synthetic crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. In 1998, the company's main operating centres were in western Canada (where it owns a nine per cent interest in the Syncrude Joint Venture), Indonesia, the North Sea and Australia. The report summarizes the company's energy resource activities, presents a detailed review of operations, and provides consolidated financial statements, and common share information. Although Gulf Canada Resources sold $ 1.2 billion worth of non-producing assets during the year, year end proved reserves of 838 million barrels of oil equivalent were less than ten per cent lower than a year earlier, reflecting reserve additions of 100 million barrels of oil equivalent. tabs., figs

  17. Preparation of desiccation-resistant aquatic-living Nostoc flagelliforme (Cyanophyceae) for potential ecological application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gao, Xiang; Yang, Yi-Wen; Cui, Li-Juan; Zhou, De-Bao; Qiu, Bao-Sheng

    2015-01-01

    Nostoc flagelliforme is a terrestrial edible cyanobacterium that grows in arid and semi-arid steppes. The continued over-exploitation in the last century has led to a sharp decline of this resource and a severe deterioration of the steppe ecology. Liquid-cultured N. flagelliforme serves as promising algal ‘seeds’ for resource restoration. In this study, macroscopic (or visible) aquatic-living colonies (MaACs) of N. flagelliforme were developed under weak light and high nitrogen conditions. In a 24 day shake-flask culture, MaACs were propagated by about 4.5-fold in biomass without loss of their macro-morphology; at the same time, the addition of weak UV-B treatment resulted in slightly bigger MaACs. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) k30, a water-soluble polymer, was used to generate the coating around MaACs, and after full desiccation, the coated MaACs could recover their photosynthetic physiological activity when rehydrated, with 4% PVP k30 for coating being most effective. In contrast, PVP k30-coated microscopic aquatic-living colonies of N. flagelliforme and non-coated MaACs showed no resistance to full desiccation. The macroscopic morphology or structure of MaACs should be crucial for the formation of protection by PVP k30 coating. PVP k30-coated MaACs were more approaching to actual application for resource restoration. PMID:25847617

  18. Lived experiences of self-care among older physically active urban-living individuals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sundsli K

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available Kari Sundsli,1,2 Geir Arild Espnes,3 Olle Söderhamn21Department of Social Work and Health Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway, 2Centre for Caring Research, Southern Norway, Faculty of Health and Sport Sciences, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway, 3Research Centre for Health Promotion and Resources HiST-NTNU, Department of Social Work and Health Science, Faculty of Social Sciences and Technology Management, NTNU, Trondheim, NorwayBackground: Promoting physical activity is a public health priority in most industrial countries, and physical function is an important factor when taking into consideration older people’s self-care and health. Despite the increasing challenges associated with urbanization and the aging population, urban life appears to be positive in many ways for urban dwellers. However, the manner in which older people live in urban settings and how this influences their ability to take care of themselves should be considered important knowledge for health professionals and politicians to acquire. The aim of this study was to describe the lived experiences of self-care and features that may influence health and self-care among older urban home-dwelling individuals who are physically active.Methods: Ten subjects, three women and seven men, who were aged 65–82 years and identified to be physically active, were interviewed. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed according to the descriptive phenomenological method devised by Giorgi.Results: Our findings showed beneficial self-care. The participants lived active everyday lives and were frequently physically active. They were part of a supportive, inclusive, and promoting fellowship, and they had the opportunity to travel. They utilized their competence and experienced making themselves useful. It was a privilege to be part of a family life as a husband, wife, parent, and/or a grandparent. They

  19. Working Together Toward a Common Goal: A Grounded Theory of Nurse-Physician Collaboration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fewster-Thuente, Lori

    2015-01-01

    Working together toward a common goal is an empirically derived theory that can guide education and practice to improve patient outcomes while saving money and lives. Grounded theory was used to explore nurses' and physicians' experiences with collaboration in order to understand the process intrinsically.

  20. Assisted Living

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... it, too. Back to top What is the Cost for Assisted Living? Although assisted living costs less than nursing home ... Primarily, older persons or their families pay the cost of assisted living. Some health and long-term care insurance policies ...