Impact of payments for environmental services and protected areas on local livelihoods and forest conservation in northern Cambodia

The potential impacts of payments for environmental services (PES) and protected areas (PAs) on environmental outcomes and local livelihoods in developing countries are contentious and have been widely debated. The available evidence is sparse, with few rigorous evaluations of the environmental and social impacts of PAs and particularly of PES. We measured the impacts on forests and human well-being of three different PES programs instituted within two PAs in northern Cambodia, using a panel of intervention villages and matched controls. Both PES and PAs delivered additional environmental outcomes relative to the counterfactual: reducing deforestation rates significantly relative to controls. PAs increased security of access to land and forest resources for local households, benefiting forest resource users but restricting households’ ability to expand and diversify their agriculture. The impacts of PES on household well-being were related to the magnitude of the payments provided. The two higher paying market-linked PES programs had significant positive impacts, whereas a lower paying program that targeted biodiversity protection had no detectable effect on livelihoods, despite its positive environmental outcomes. Households that signed up for the higher paying PES programs, however, typically needed more capital assets; hence, they were less poor and more food secure than other villagers. Therefore, whereas the impacts of PAs on household well-being were limited overall and varied between livelihood strategies, the PES programs had significant positive impacts on livelihoods for those that could afford to participate. Our results are consistent with theories that PES, when designed appropriately, can be a powerful new tool for delivering conservation goals whilst benefiting local people. El Impacto de los Pagos por Servicios Ambientales y Áreas Protegidas sobre la Subsistencia Local y la Conservación del Bosque en el Norte de Camboya RESUMEN: Los impactos potenciales de los pagos por servicios ambientales (PSA) y áreas protegidas (APs) sobre los resultados ambientales y las subsistencias locales en los países en desarrollo son polémicos y se han debatido ampliamente. La evidencia disponible es escasa; ha habido pocas evaluaciones rigurosas de los impactos ambientales y sociales de las APs y particularmente los PSA. Medimos el impacto sobre los bosques y el bienestar humano en tres diferentes programas de PSA que se llevan a cabo dentro de dos APs en el norte de Camboya usando un panel de aldeas de intervención y controles emparejados. Tanto los PSA como las APs brindaron resultados ambientales adicionales en relación a los contrafácticos, esto quiere decir que redujeron las tasas de deforestación significativamente en relación a los controles. Las áreas protegidas incrementaron el acceso seguro a los recursos del suelo y el bosque para las viviendas locales, beneficiando a los usuarios de los recursos del bosque pero restringiendo la habilidad de las viviendas para expandirse y diversificar su agricultura. Los impactos de los pagos por servicios ambientales sobre el bienestar de las viviendas estuvieron relacionados con la magnitud de los pagos proporcionados. Los dos programas de PSA de mayor paga y con conexión al mercado tuvieron impactos positivos significativos, mientras que un programa de menor paga con el objetivo de proteger a la biodiversidad no tuvo un efecto detectable sobre las viviendas, a pesar de sus resultados ambientales positivos. Las viviendas que se inscribieron a los programas de PSA con mayor paga, sin embargo, necesitaban típicamente más bienes capitales, por lo que eran menos pobres y tenían mayor seguridad alimentaria que otros aldeanos. Por esto, mientras los impactos de las APs sobre el bienestar de las viviendas fueron limitados en general y variaron dependiendo de las estrategias de subsistencia, los programas de PSA tuvieron impactos positivos significativos sobre las viviendas para aquellos que podían costear participar. Nuestros resultados son congruentes con las teorías de que los PSA, cuando se designan apropiadamente, pueden ser una herramienta poderosa y novedosa para obtener objetivos de conservación mientras se beneficia a la gente local

Autoclavable addition polyimides for 371 C composite applications

Studies were conducted to improve the thermo-oxidative stability (TOS) of PMR type polyimides by the substitution of para-aminostyrene (PAS) for the nadic ester endcap in second generation PMR polyimides (PMR-2). The nadic endcap which provides the PMR polyimides with their relative ease of fabrication, both by limiting the molecular weight of the prepolymer and by undergoing the final addition cure without volatiles, is also the weak link with regard to TOS. A polyimide formulated with PAS endcaps, called V-CAP, utilizes a two step reaction sequence similar to that of the PMR polyimides and can be easily autoclave molded into low void composite materials. Resin studies included two formulations of both PMR-2 and V-CAP, corresponding to n=9 and n=14 prepolymer stoichiometry. Unidirectional reinforced T40R graphite fiber laminates were fabricated from each of the resins was post-cured in either air at 385 C or nitrogen at 400 C. Composite specimens were aged in air at 371 C and mechanical properties were measured at 371 C before and after exposure

A simple paper test for isoniazid in urine

Tests for the presence of chemotherapeutic drugs or their metabolites in urine play an important part in the management of the treatment of tuberculosis (Dixon et al., 1957; Fox, 1958). A previous report from this Centre (Gangadharam et al., 1958) presented a comparison of a number of methods for detecting isoniazid in urine including the direct naphthoquinone-mercuric chloride (N-M) test (Short and Case, 1957), and also a modification of this test which employed alkaline hydrolysis to liberate isoniazid from its conjugated forms. The direct-and hydrolysis N-M tests have been employed in this Centre for the past four years to control the self-administration of isoniazid used in the domiciliary treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. The effect of irregularity in taking isoniazid as detected by these tests on the response to treatment has been reported elsewhere (Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, 1960). Since this method has the disadvantage that it requires a certain amount of equipment and trained personnel, it is not suitable for routine use in all chest clinics or under field conditions. An attempt was therefore made in this Centre to simplify the direct N-M test by incorporating the reagents in absorbent papers; Though impregnation of the paper with the pHl0 buffer and naphthoquinone reagent was successful, impregnation with the aqueous solution of the mercuric chloride was unsatisfactory. In 1960, Cattaneo, Fantoli and Belasio published details of a paper test modification of the N-M test in which this difficulty was overcome by impregnating absorbent papers with a solution of mercuric chloride in ether. Since then this modification has been adopted for the preparation of the test-paper developed in this Centre. Since a lower concentration of the naphthoquinone reagent and a shorter period of exposure was used in the preparation of the testpaper developed in this Centre than described by Cattaneo et al. (1960), both the paper tests have been compared with the direct and combined N-M tests described previously (Gangadharam et al., 1958). This paper presents the results of the comparison and of an of the specificity of the paper test

Prevalence Of Anxiety Among Hungarian Subjects With Parkinson's Disease

Although anxiety is one of the most frequent symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), only a few clinical tools can efficiently and reliably detect its presence. The aim of the present study was to validate the Hungarian patient-rated version of Parkinson Anxiety Scale (PAS). A total of 190 PD patients were enrolled into the clinimetric validation phase of the study and another 590 participated in the cross-sectional screening phase. The presence of anxiety disorder was diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria. The cutoff value for PAS which best discriminated the presence of anxiety from the absence was 12.5 points (sensitivity of 88.6%, specificity of 79.9). The area under the curve was 0.847 whereas the ROC analysis yielded the statistical significance level (p<0.001). The optimal threshold values for mild (Hoehn and Yahr Stage, HYS 1 and 2), moderate (HYS 3), and severe (HYS 4 and 5) disease stages were 10.5, 12.5, and 13.5 points, respectively. Based on the general threshold anxiety occurred in 35.8% of the patients (persistent anxiety: 29.2%, episodic anxiety: 20.7%, and avoidant anxiety disorder: 16.8%). We demonstrate that the PAS is a valid, highly reliable, and sensitive tool for assessing anxiety

Boletín oficial de la provincia de León: Num. 38 (11/05/1844)

Copia digital. Valladolid : Junta de Castilla y León. Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 2011-201

Endothelial MAPKs Direct ICAM-1 Signaling to Divergent Inflammatory Functions.

Lymphocyte transendothelial migration (TEM) is critically dependent on intraendothelial signaling triggered by adhesion to ICAM-1. Here we show that endothelial MAPKs ERK, p38, and JNK mediate diapedesis-related and diapedesis-unrelated functions of ICAM-1 in cerebral and dermal microvascular endothelial cells (MVECs). All three MAPKs were activated by ICAM-1 engagement, either through lymphocyte adhesion or Ab-mediated clustering. MAPKs were involved in ICAM-1-dependent expression of TNF-α in cerebral and dermal MVECs, and CXCL8, CCL3, CCL4, VCAM-1, and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) in cerebral MVECs. Endothelial JNK and to a much lesser degree p38 were the principal MAPKs involved in facilitating diapedesis of CD4(+) lymphocytes across both types of MVECs, whereas ERK was additionally required for TEM across dermal MVECs. JNK activity was critical for ICAM-1-induced F-actin rearrangements. Furthermore, activation of endothelial ICAM-1/JNK led to phosphorylation of paxillin, its association with VE-cadherin, and internalization of the latter. Importantly ICAM-1-induced phosphorylation of paxillin was required for lymphocyte TEM and converged functionally with VE-cadherin phosphorylation. Taken together we conclude that during lymphocyte TEM, ICAM-1 signaling diverges into pathways regulating lymphocyte diapedesis, and other pathways modulating gene expression thereby contributing to the long-term inflammatory response of the endothelium

Flexible, fast and accurate sequence alignment profiling on GPGPU with PaSWAS

Motivation To obtain large-scale sequence alignments in a fast and flexible way is an important step in the analyses of next generation sequencing data. Applications based on the Smith-Waterman (SW) algorithm are often either not fast enough, limited to dedicated tasks or not sufficiently accurate due to statistical issues. Current SW implementations that run on graphics hardware do not report the alignment details necessary for further analysis. Results With the Parallel SW Alignment Software (PaSWAS) it is possible (a) to have easy access to the computational power of NVIDIA-based general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs) to perform high-speed sequence alignments, and (b) retrieve relevant information such as score, number of gaps and mismatches. The software reports multiple hits per alignment. The added value of the new SW implementation is demonstrated with two test cases: (1) tag recovery in next generation sequence data and (2) isotype assignment within an immunoglobulin 454 sequence data set. Both cases show the usability and versatility of the new parallel Smith-Waterman implementation. (...

What\u27s Happening: July 28, 1982

https://knowledgeconnection.mainehealth.org/whatshappening/2134/thumbnail.jp