110,815 research outputs found

    Safety, Security and Socio-Economic Wellbeing in Somaliland

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    This report documents the findings from a study on the relationship between safety/security and socio-economic wellbeing in Somaliland. The study was conducted for the Danish Demining Group (DDG) and Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining in twelve of DDG's project sites. It is based on a quantitative survey of 378 households and qualitative focus group interviews. Findings suggest a high degree of correlation between improvements in safety and security, many associated with the community safety work of DDG, and socio-economic benefits to communities. Reported benefits include fewer conflicts, more secure communities at night, fewer accidents involving small arms and explosive remnants of war, and better community-police relations. These are perceived to have contributed to improvements in access to markets, lengthening hours that businesses can remain open, improved opportunities for participating in savings activities, and generally increased household incomes. Recommendations for maximizing the benefits of improved security for socio-economic gains are provided

    Post-war economic opportunities in northern Uganda: Implications for Women's Empowerment and Political Participation

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    This document presents a women-focused study which looks at peace dividends and their nature, as well as the direction they are taking. The overall objective is to map out economic opportunities for women in post-war northern Uganda and the implications for their broader political participation and empowerment

    Projected Constraints on Modified Gravity Cosmologies from 21 cm Intensity Mapping

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    We present projected constraints on modified gravity models from the observational technique known as 21 cm intensity mapping, where cosmic structure is detected without resolving individual galaxies. The resulting map is sensitive to both BAO and weak lensing, two of the most powerful cosmological probes. It is found that a 200 m x 200 m cylindrical telescope, sensitive out to z=2.5, would be able to distinguish DGP from most dark energy models, and constrain the Hu & Sawicki f(R) model to |f_{R0}| < 9*10^(-6) at 95% confidence. The latter constraint makes extensive use of the lensing spectrum in the nonlinear regime. These results show that 21 cm intensity mapping is not only sensitive to modifications of the standard model's expansion history, but also to structure growth. This makes intensity mapping a powerful and economical technique, achievable on much shorter time scales than optical experiments that would probe the same era.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Added references and expanded discussion. As resubmitted to Phys. Rev. D, in response to reviewer comment

    Social Skills Group Therapy For Children With Emotional And Behavioral Problems

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    The topic of this research was the utilization of social skills group therapy with children with poor social skills and emotional and behavioral problems. The literature explains that group therapy has many benefits to clients that are not available in individual work with clients. Social skills group therapy is theorized to be helpful for children with mental health disorders, especially children who are physically aggressive. In this type of group therapy, it is effective to teach children the phases of using social skills and using discussion and role-play to understand each social skill. A social skills therapy group was conducted for eight weeks with six clients between the ages of eight and nine years at Children’s Intensive Services (CIS) in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The hypothesis of this research was that the social skills group would increase the pro-social behavior of the clients and decrease the anti-social behavior, especially physical aggression. A qualitative analysis was conducted of the group process, as well as a quantitative analysis of a questionnaire sent to the teachers of the group members before and after the group was conducted. Most of the members of the therapy group did at least slightly increase in pro-social behavior and at least slightly decrease in anti-social behavior, although no statistically significant changes were shown. Qualitative reports for the CIS clinicians of the group members show that their social behavior did improve after the group had finished. Not only is educating children about social skills helpful to their social functioning, but it could be used to reduce violence in schools and on a societal level, such as gang violence

    Geospatial Narratives and their Spatio-Temporal Dynamics: Commonsense Reasoning for High-level Analyses in Geographic Information Systems

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    The modelling, analysis, and visualisation of dynamic geospatial phenomena has been identified as a key developmental challenge for next-generation Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this context, the envisaged paradigmatic extensions to contemporary foundational GIS technology raises fundamental questions concerning the ontological, formal representational, and (analytical) computational methods that would underlie their spatial information theoretic underpinnings. We present the conceptual overview and architecture for the development of high-level semantic and qualitative analytical capabilities for dynamic geospatial domains. Building on formal methods in the areas of commonsense reasoning, qualitative reasoning, spatial and temporal representation and reasoning, reasoning about actions and change, and computational models of narrative, we identify concrete theoretical and practical challenges that accrue in the context of formal reasoning about `space, events, actions, and change'. With this as a basis, and within the backdrop of an illustrated scenario involving the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban narratives, we address specific problems and solutions techniques chiefly involving `qualitative abstraction', `data integration and spatial consistency', and `practical geospatial abduction'. From a broad topical viewpoint, we propose that next-generation dynamic GIS technology demands a transdisciplinary scientific perspective that brings together Geography, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Science. Keywords: artificial intelligence; cognitive systems; human-computer interaction; geographic information systems; spatio-temporal dynamics; computational models of narrative; geospatial analysis; geospatial modelling; ontology; qualitative spatial modelling and reasoning; spatial assistance systemsComment: ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information (ISSN 2220-9964); Special Issue on: Geospatial Monitoring and Modelling of Environmental Change}. IJGI. Editor: Duccio Rocchini. (pre-print of article in press

    CAPRi technical workshop on Watershed Management Institutions: a summary paper

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    The System-wide Program for Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi) sponsored a workshop on Watershed Management Institutions, March 13-16, 1999 in Managua, Nicaragua. The workshop focused on methodologies for undertaking research on watersheds, particularly those issues and tools that enable a more thorough understanding of the complex interactions between the biophysical factors and socioeconomic institutions of watersheds. Both social and biophysical scientists from CGIAR and other research institutions were brought together to present research and participate in focused discussions on methodologies for addressing collective action and property rights, scale, participation, and impact assessment. The forum also provided an opportunity for participants to visit and learn from a watershed project being implemented by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and to discuss one another's ongoing watershed research project experience and explore opportunities for collaboration.International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Impact assessment,

    Can local institutions reduce poverty? Rural decentralization in Burkina Faso

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    The authors present evidence that in Burkina Faso, certain high-performing local institutions contribute to equitable economic development. They link reduced levels of poverty, and inequality to a high degree of internal village organization. The structure of these high-performing local organizations means they can exist in a number of African countries, because they depend more on internal participation, rather than on nay one country's cultural assets. The authors find that: 1) Service-asset management groups (SAMs) - one of three local institutions identified in the study - have helped to significantly reduce inequality in participating households. SAMs are a fusion of long-standing development committees, and indigenous management councils that collectively manage community assets, such as water. SAMs have combined the productivity goals of growth, with the values of equity, and solidarity. 2) Current development approaches use growth as an initiator, assuming that surpluses will be used to benefit the poor. SAMs, and other local institutions in Burkina Faso, start with equity, and solidarity, and aim for a result of growth, and development. 3) Internal participation is essential for SAMs to function. Only locally anchored participation can power the realignments, and institutional revisions needed to scale up development action. SAMs, and other local institutions have launched their communities on equitable growth paths, and are reducing poverty with little, or no outside assistance, despite severe resource constraints. Their impact could be enormous if external development resources augmented their potential. World Bank programs, and policy interventions could build on local strength, and make their activities more sustainable by mapping local institutions to guide new initiatives in pro-poor investment, and using that mapping to formalize, and increase internal local participation - expanding nationwide by using a network of local institutions. SAMs, and other local institutions, could be the vehicle for ensuring transparency, and accountability. Working with the results of local activities, national policies could favor the development of indigenously based, but externally oriented local economies.Decentralization,Regional Rural Development,Public Health Promotion,Enterprise Development&Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Regional Rural Development,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Governance Indicators,National Governance

    Fact Finding Report on the Future of Worker-Management Relations Released Today

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    Includes summary sheet and letter from the National Planning Association.Press_Release_DOL_060294.pdf: 316 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

    A bibliography of Lake Kariba 1987-1994

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    The bibliography contains some 116 citations, including unpublished reports and manuscripts, regarding Lake Kariba. Most of the reports are from the Zambia/Zimbabwe SADC Fisheries and Lake Kariba Fisheries Research Institute. The citations are listed in alphabetical order according to author
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