The Campus Diversity Initiative: Current Status, Anticipating the Future

Provides an overview of Irvine's 2000-2005 initiative to assist 28 independent California colleges and universities to increase the success of historically underrepresented students on their campuses. Includes lessons learned, and future plans

The enhancement of knowledge, preservation and valorisation of historical settlements in the alpine area: an interdisciplinary approach

The paper aims to present the methodological approach used for the development of the Interreg IIIB Alpine Space project “Cultur ALP - Knowledge and Enhancement of Historical Centres and Cultural Landscape”. The project promoted by Lombardy Region, involves seven European regions from four different countries. The goal is to improve the knowledge of alpine historical settlements and to develop innovative operating policies to protect and enhance this distinctive cultural heritage. The paper will focus on the SWOT analysis methodology, here applied to cultural heritage and aiming to describe, understand and valorise the peculiarities and the values of historical settlements and cultural landscapes in the alpine territory. SWOT analysis indicators have been selected in order to internalise the interdisciplinary approach chosen in the project. The intervention strategy that normally characterises the government and management of historic settlements is sectoral and looks at the settlement itself as an ensemble of valuable buildings to be preserved from depletion. Here this point of view is overtaken in favour of a “systemic” analysis, where historical settlements can be viewed as cultural capital, closely integrated to all the other territorial resources. This to achieve a sustainable and durable territorial development, based on the preservation and valorisation of cultural, historical, artistic, social, economic and environmental identities, according to the peculiar spatial and socio-economic context of the Alps arch. This implies the contribution of different disciplinary approaches and tool boxes, that have to be understood and shared by different knowledge systems (approach, strategies, methodologies, tools…). The real challenge of the project is therefore the use of the interdisciplinary approach in developing integrated policies for the preservation and valorisation of historical settlements and cultural landscapes, pushing architects and historians of art as well as planners, economists, sociologists, administrative professionals and other territorial analysts to work together in a mutual learning process.

A Sustainability Framework for Enhancing the Long-Term Success of LULUCF Projects

Collateral impacts of LULUCF projects, especially those concerning social and environmental aspects, have been recognised as important by the Marrakech Accords. The same applies to the necessity of assessing and, if possible, of quantifying the magnitude of these impacts. This article aims to define, clarify and structure the relevant social, economic and environmental issues to be addressed and to give examples of indicators that ought to be included in the planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and ex post evaluation of LULUCF projects. This is being done by providing a conceptual framework for the assessment of the sustainability of such projects that can be used as a checklist when dealing with concrete projects, and that in principle is applicable to both Annex I and non-Annex I countries. Finally, a set of recommendations is provided to further develop and promote the proposed framework.LULUCF projects, CDM, Kyoto Protocol, Sustainability, Socio-economic impacts, Environmental impacts

Stress Relieving Lavender Aromatherapy for Inpatient Nurses

Lavender essential oil as a form of aromatherapy is proven to be an effective way to relieve occupational stress among nurses, providing them with a healthy self-care outlet. The purpose of this DNP project was to decrease the stress levels of inpatient nurses by implementing lavender essential oil aromatherapy as a self-care initiative. Willing inpatient Registered Nurses within a fast-paced inpatient telemetry unit were given a vial that contained three drops of Young Living lavender essential oil enclosed within at the beginning of their shifts. The nurses were asked to carry it with them during their eight-hour shifts for three weeks and directly inhale the aroma twice when they perceived stress. A Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) was administered before and after aromatherapy exposure for pre-post comparison to measure the effectiveness of the aromatherapy self-care intervention. Nine registered nurses out of forty (23%) from a telemetry inpatient unit participated in the project. The average Nursing Stress Scale score of the participants prior to the aromatherapy exposure was 83 and the average score after exposure decreased to 75. Eight out of nine nurses (89%) felt stress relief from utilizing aromatherapy within their nursing work shifts over the three-week period. The nurses who used their vials the least, 1-3 times a day, had a lower average post aromatherapy score of 69.5. Those who inhaled their aromatherapy more often during their shift, 3-6 or 6 plus times a day, had higher average post NSS scores of 80, 75 and 71. In conclusion, Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) essential oil is an effective self-care intervention that lowers stress levels among inpatient nurses

Designing walkable streets in congested touristic cities: the case of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

This paper presents the case of Cartagena de Indias, a well-known international touristic destination in Colombia, which experiences serious problems of traffic congestion and accessibility to the city center. Promoting pedestrian mobility is one of the public administration's main goals, by enhancing and re-designing different pedestrian paths. Designing pedestrian zones is a context-specific multifaceted problem that involves multiple stakeholders and multiple criteria. A participatory multicriteria approach based on the Analytic Network Process (ANP) has been used to understand the most important characteristics affecting pedestrian mobility in Cartagena de Indias, thus deriving a useful decision-support tool for planning and designing pedestrian paths. In this respect, in this paper a set of streets in the city center has been evaluated, by combining the results of ANP with spatial data using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), producing thematic maps and an index of pedestrian priority to derive a priority of intervention. Some streets have been redesigned with the aim to increase their walking attractiveness. Results put the basis for discussion with local administration and stakeholders to validate them and propose further applications of the methodology

Towards homeostatic architecture: simulation of the generative process of a termite mound construction

This report sets out to the theme of the generation of a ‘living’, homeostatic and self-organizing architectural structure. The main research question this project addresses is what innovative techniques of design, construction and materials could prospectively be developed and eventually applied to create and sustain human-made buildings which are mostly adaptive, self-controlled and self-functioning, without option to a vast supply of materials and peripheral services. The hypothesis is that through the implementation of the biological building behaviour of termites, in terms of collective construction mechanisms that are based on environmental stimuli, we could achieve a simulation of the generative process of their adaptive structures, capable to inform in many ways human construction. The essay explicates the development of the 3-dimensional, agent-based simulation of the termite collective construction and analyzes the results, which involve besides physical modelling of the evolved structures. It finally elucidates the potential of this emerging and adaptive architectural performance to be translated to human practice and thus enlighten new ecological engineering and design methodologies

The role of learning organization in knowledge management process

The content and the organization of work represent dimensions which do not only involve mobilizing competencies but are also dimensions in which competencies are developed. In an organization people create, accumulate or transfer knowledge, ideas, values, attitudes, feelings or experiences. The goal of a learning organization is to improve competency diffusion, to enrich them and to capitalize experiences. Chaos arises when the level of learning of the enterprise reaches a point in which it can no longer deal with the changes in the environment it functions in. In this work we shall try to discuss the potential for transformation of organizations, constantly challenged, even in the world of knowledge.learning organization, active learning, knowledge management, organizational learning

The role of voluntary disclosure in listed company: an alternative model

The aim of this paper is to propose a model of social reporting that allows improving the communication of sociability and quantify the sociability. The research approach follows a qualitative methodology, applying a single method approach. The observations are the result of an empirical analysis carried out on the Italian-Stock-Exchange listed companies that have an independent social or sustainability balance sheet. The findings of this research are based, first, on collection of data about the sample, in order to identify the strong and weak points in terms of its management and economic evaluation, and secondly on the introduction of an alternative method of social accounting, with the objective of measuring the sociability of company communication